This past weekend was the unofficial kick-off of summer, and by now, farmers markets have opened in most areas of the country. Summer is the perfect time to experiment with eating locally, as the coming weeks will see the tables at markets and farm stands laden with berries, squash, melons, corn, and the locavore’s ultimate prize: field-ripened tomatoes. After two years of participating in the “One Local Summer” challenge, we’ve become pretty accustomed to eating locally as often as possible throughout the year. But it’s been such fun to meet others, whether committed locavores or those just beginning to explore a real food lifestyle, through various eating local challenges.

To continue the fun, while sharing recipes and resources, I’d like to introduce a new weekly feature here at FoodieTots: Local Potluck Tuesday. Unlike some of the other challenges out there, this is not a “how local can you go” competition. In fact, while local ingredients should be featured in your recipe or meal, there are no firm rules. You decide whether “local” to you is 100 miles, 125, or within your state. No one will judge if you dress your local greens in Spanish olive oil or if you don’t harvest your own salt for seasoning your local grass-fed beef kabobs. Just show us something local you’ve enjoyed this week with your family — that’s it!

The weekly round-ups start next week, Tuesday, June 8. To keep it as simple as possible, we’ll be using MckLinky — so just check here for a post, add your link, and take a moment to hop around to enjoy the feast from other participants. (If you don’t have a blog, you’re welcome to share in the comments.)

Local Potluck Tuesday — a few guidelines:

1. Share a relevant post — a recipe, menu or pictures of a meal featuring local foods, from the farmers market, CSA, farm stand or your own garden — using the MckLinky widget. In the link title field, enter both your post title and your name &/or blog name, e.g., “Local Burger Bbq — Colleen @ FoodieTots.”

2. Bonus points if you included your kids in picking, growing, purchasing or cooking the ingredients for the meal! (And by bonus points, I mean increased likelihood of seeing your post featured in the following week’s post.)

3. In your post, please link back to that week’s round-up post here at FoodieTots, so your readers can find the potluck and be encouraged to join in as well.

That’s it! I hope you’ll join in and share what you’re cooking up to celebrate our local farms and the wonderful food they provide to nourish our families.

Calling all farmers market fans! Whether you’re an experienced locavore or just curious about whether you could survive cooking with only locally-grown ingredients, you’re invited to join in for a three-month local eating challenge. One Local Summer 2009, hosted by Farm to Philly, begins this Monday, June 1. Participants commit to cooking one entirely local (except for oil, vinegar and spices) meal each week. Here’s a reminder of some of the Chesapeake Bay foodshed meals we enjoyed last year. And I’m pleased to be helping this year as the Southern region coordinator, so if you’re in the Southeast (DC and south of the Potomac) please sign up to join in or just check back to see what your neighbors are cooking up each week. To join, email your name, location and blog url (if you have one) to farmtophilly@gmail.com by Sunday, May 31. 

An essential component of a DC summer, we finally had our Old Bay-doused, steamed Maryland blue crabs* this weekend at Quarterdeck. Nothing like cutting it close; Columbus Day is generally the end of crab season. It was less crowded than at the peak of summer though, and these meaty, sweet jumbo crabs were worth the wait.

The toddler was pretty into the mallets, but stuck to crab balls and fries for eating. Quarterdeck is conveniently located just up hill from National airport, so the steady stream of airplanes taking off helped keep him entertain while we picked crabs. Yum.

* This year’s farm bill contained funds to help farmers reduce run-off into the Bay, to help our endangered crabs. And the environment, too.

The first few days of the Eat Local Challenge were not terribly successful, as they coincided with a work conference that required me to eat several meals in a hotel. One lunch was particularly comic in its seasonal schizophrenia, with asparagus atop sweet potatoes. The weekend farmers market visits enabled me to re-stock the fridge with dairy, bread and produce to be better prepared headed into this week.

My ulterior motive with the challenge is to be more disciplined in eating not just local foods but healthier as well. My requirement to eat something local at every meal has forced me to eat better at breakfast, which is by far my biggest problem area. I am not a morning person, and despite my love of coffee I do not have the skill or patience to make my own first thing in the morning. So I wind up eating unhealthy pastries along with my morning latte. Now, I could claim compliance by buying the locally-baked pastries at my local coffee shop, but I’m trying to improve upon that by actually eating the wonderful local yogurt I always have in the fridge. A slice of locally-baked bread, toasted, with homemade plum jam rounds out the meal and really doesn’t take all that long. I am fortunate in that my son usually eats his breakfast at daycare, so I have some time to get into a healthy routine before he learns from my bad example!

We have had some good mostly-local dinners. This hearty sweet potato and sausage saute was perfect for a rainy evening. Sunday was grilled flank steak and squash, Monday was the leftover steak in veggie-loaded salsa rice. And for those curious, scroll down to the bottom of this post for a list of the local products we’ve eaten this week, and their sources.

Recipe: Sweet Potato & Sausage Skillet Saute

Ingredients:

• 2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 T olive oil
• 4 links Italian sausage, cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bunch tatsoi (or spinach), rinsed
• 1 T soy sauce
• red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper

Instructions: Bring a pot of water to boil and cook sweet potato chunks until just tender, about 6 minutes. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat and brown sausage. Remove from pan, reduce heat to medium and add garlic and onion. Cook 3-4 minutes until soft and translucent. Drain sweet potatoes and add to skillet. Place tatsoi on top, pour soy sauce and additional olive oil over top, cover and let cook until tatsoi is wilted, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in sausage, red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Serve over quinoa or rice. Makes 4 servings. Enjoy!

Farms of Origin

• steak, Fauquier’s Finest via Let’s Meat on the Avenue, Va.
• milk & butter, South Mountain Creamery, Md.
• sweet potatoes, tatsoi, onions, Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA, Va.
• squash, tomatoes, Medina & Sons, Va. (@ Alexandria West End market)
• goat cheese, yogurt & Amish-baked sticky buns, Tom the cheese guy, Pa. (@ Del Ray/West End markets)
• apples, pears, grapes, Papa’s Orchard, Pa. (@ West End market)
• rye bread, Uptown Bakers, Md. (@ West End market)

This is a favorite fall meal, when we’re in the mood for roast chicken but it’s still nice enough outside to grill. The only problem is that we rarely have cans of beer in the house, but I improvised by pouring beer into an empty coke can instead. The beer steams the chicken from within resulting in an incredibly moist chicken. I also stuff the can with fresh herbs (green onions, parsley and garlic chives here) to add even more flavor. And, as with an oven-roasted chicken, the leftovers and bones can be used for several more meals during the week.

Recipe: Beer Can Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 can beer
• several stems green onions
• fresh parsley
• ¼ c butter
• 2 T brown sugar
• 1 T cumin
• 1 t cayenne pepper
• salt & pepper
• 1 whole chicken, 3-4 lbs.

Instructions: Preheat the grill to medium (350*). Open the beer can and pour out (drink) about half. Poke several holes around the top, and stick herbs in the can’s mouth. Place on a large plate or stand. (If you don’t have a stand, you can balance the chicken on the grill using the can and its legs to form a tripod.) Soften the butter and stir in the sugar and seasonings. Rub the mixture under the chicken’s skin and all over the exterior. Place the chicken over the can and carefully transfer onto the grill. Grill over indirect medium heat for 1 hr. to 1 ¼ hrs. Remove from grill (very carefully!) and let stand for 5 minutes before carving. Serves 4.

Recipe: Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 T butter, softened
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1/2 t cumin

Instructions: Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Spread butter over cut sides, sprinkle sugar and cumin over the top. Wrap in foil and place on grill, away from the flame, for 40 minutes. Serves 2-4. Enjoy!

Farms of Origin

• free-range chicken, Smith Meadows, Va.
• butter, South Mountain Creamery, Md.
• white sweet potatoes, a Virginia farm, Del Ray Farmers Market, Va.
• herbs, Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA, Va.
• beer, Starr Hill Jomo lager, Va.