Gettin’ the Right Eats

Bob Waldrop's Oklahoma Food Blog

The month of May is almost gone. I have everyone had a nice Memorial Day holiday. Things have been so busy in the coop over the last few months that looking through my archive, I see that it has been a while since I had much to say about food, in particular – “slow cooking for busy people” – and so I thought I would share a few ideas and recipes that have helped me get through the last three months of super-busy coop business.

A Lazy Memorial Day Meal

Reuben Sandwiches

Pasta Salad

I must confess, these were kind of “fake” Reuben sandwiches as none of our producers have any pastrami or corned beef for sale (memo to producers: The Coop Needs Corned Beef and Pastrami!). But they are pretty good nevertheless. I made these yesterday for our lazy Memorial Day holiday.

The first thing you need is Coop Sandwich Sauce!

Mayonnaise is not sold through the coop, and as I have said before, I have been using yogurt cheese instead of mayo. But Reuben sandwiches demand Thousand Island Dressing, also not sold in the coop. Not to worry. I took some yogurt cheese, sprinkled it with garlic and onion powder, a couple of dashes of Holder’s Better than Salt seasoning, black and cayenne pepper, added some ketchup and a dab of coop mustard. I have made this a couple of times, and didn’t measure anything. So we could say – add each ingredient “to taste”. The basic proportion was 1 part yogurt cheese, 1/4 part ketchup, 1/8 part mustard, and then a couple of shakes of each of the ground seasonings. Mix well.

For the Coop Reubens –

I used coop shaved ham (I have also made these previously with fried sausage patties), which I first pan fried. I buttered bread, put that face down on a COLD electric skillet, spread the top with Coop Sandwich Sauce, and then layered sliced coop cheeses, shaved ham, and canned saurkraut (let the saurkraut drain for a few minutes before putting it on the sandwiches so they don’t get soggy). This was then topped with another slice of bread with coop butter on one side and Coop Sandwich Sauce on the other.

THEN I turned on the electric skillet, cooked until it was nice and skillet-toasty on one side, flipped them, and voila, coop Reuben sandwiches with great melted cheeses.

For the coop pasta salad. . .

I used some leftover macaroni from the previous day’s cooking. I minced some onion, sliced a bit of celery, and chopped some small cubes of coop cheeses. Then I added “Coop Sandwich Sauce”, since I already had some made. It wasn’t enough (oops), so I made some more. It takes no time at all to mix Coop Sandwich Sauce so that wasn’t a major error.

Surviving “Too Busy-ness” Coop TV Dinners

My great-aunt Jewell Ray was quite a cook. Her chocolate cake was legendary in Tillman County. She also liked to travel on the various bus tours that were organized in the local community, but her husband, Walter, was not much for traveling. So he would stay home and she would go. Before she left, however, she would pack the freezer with TV dinners she made for her husband to heat and eat.

The last few months have been busier than any other time in our coop history. As the busy-ness increased, I noticed my time for cooking was seriously decreasing, and my bill at Sonic and Jeff’s Country Kitchen was getting too big. But it just was not possible for me to cook meals every day. There was too much work.

To the rescue came my loyal chest freezer. “Fill me up with cooked meals,” it said, ” and I will feed you while you’re busy, like your Aunt Jewell did for your Uncle Walter.” Well, I’m not saying I had an actual hallucination where the freezer talked to me, I wasn’t THAT busy. But the freezer was there, ready to go to work, and it made a big contribution to getting my household through this busy time, especially the peak effort time between the April and May delivery days.

I had one full day off from my the day job that I was dedicating to “home work” – gardening, cleaning, laundry, etc. So I added cooking to the list of things to do. The day before, I took 10 pounds of ground meat, 3 chuck roasts, some vegetable broth, and my last coop chicken out of the freezer and let them thaw.

First thing in the morning I put the chuck roasts in crock pots and set them on the porch to cook with onions, carrots, and celery (it was a hot day so I wanted to minimize inside cooking).

Then I started my other chores. In mid-morning, I took a break from those chores and fried four of the ten pounds of ground beef, and mixed the other six pounds into meatloaf, which went into the oven. I stewed the chicken.

I went back to my other chores. Staked the tomatoes. Planted some squash. Set out some flowers. Piled on some mulch. In the early afternoon, I put the cooked ground beef into a stock pot with tomato sauce and started it simmering. The roasts were done, so I took them out, and made a giant bulgar pilaf using 6 cups of bulgar. I used some of the drippings from the roast, some of the chicken broth plus some vegetable stock, to flavor the pilaf, also chopped onion and shredded carrots, and a sprinkling of carraway seeds and cumin seeds. When the big pilaf was done I started the four meatloafs (meatloaves?) to cooking.

By late afternoon, everything was cooked. I divided the tomato sauce/ground beef into four containers. I plated the meatloaf and cooked roast with the bulgar pilaf, and poured the last of the beef drippings over the meats and bulgar, and then wrapped everything well with aluminum foil. I labeled each item with the date and what it was. I divided the chicken in two parts, we had one that evening as chicken and dumplings, and the other was frozen and used later to make chicken salad (and yes, I used yogurt cheese instead of mayo for the chicken salad).

So it came to pass that I made 24 meals in one day. My time? Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. The cooking took much longer, of course, but I didn’t have to stand around and watch things cook. (It always takes longer when you watch, everyone knows that.)

To cook for eating, I simply took them out, and popped them in the oven (frozen) at 350 degrees, and 45 minutes later they were hot and ready to eat inside. All I had to prepare at that time was a vegetable side dish, and lunch or dinner was ready. Later in the year, when I do this, I will be able to add a vegetable side dish to the meals – in the past, I have added cooked greens and baked squash to these frozen dinners.

Note that since this took all day off and on, there was some “waiting time” for some of the cooked ingredients. After some initial cooling, they went into the refrigerator to keep everything food safe.

Don’t forget to label items! I used to think, “Well, I’ll know what it is”, but two months later, it can be hard to figure out what a frost-covered item is. Label and date everything prepared that goes in your freezer, so you know what it is and how long it has been there. This is critical to successfully managing a full freezer.

There’s no doubt that cooking with basic ingredients such as we sell at the Oklahoma Food Coop is not as “quick” as putting a bought frozen dinner in the microwave. But when it comes to taste and nutrition, I’ll put my home cooked “TV Dinners” up against anything from the frozen section of the supermarket.

Another option is the many fine prepared frozen items available through the coop. Besides these meals that I prepared myself, I also had calzones and burritos in the freezer from the coop, and those were great for quick lunches.

The secret to this success is to plan. That way you can use your time in the kitchen efficiently. For resources and recipes, simply do an internet search for “once a month cooking”, and you will find a plethora (actually, several plethoras) of recipes and meals plans to prepare a whole month’s worth of meals in one day long cooking session.

The June Oklahoma Food Cooperative order opens at 8 AM on June 1^st! See you there!

Still bon appetitin’ in Oklahoma City,

Bob Waldrop

Oklahoma Food Cooperative

For five years of columns and thoughts about Oklahoma Food, visit http://www.oklahomafood.coop/bobsnotes.php

Bob’s Oklahoma Food Notes
January 2008

Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative will be Saturday, January 26, 2008. The business meeting starts at 11 AM, followed by lunch, which is being provided by our producer members. (No one leaves our Annual Meeting hungry.)

The meeting will be at Grace United Methodist Church, 6316 N Tulsa, Oklahoma City. This is at the intersection of NW 63rd and NW Expressway.

Please plan now to attend this important annual event. This is a great opportunity to meet many of our producers and sample their products. We will elect officers and directors, hear reports, and talk about going forward into the future. We need a quorum of 5% of the members of the coop, which means we need a representative from 79 coop memberships to have a quorum.

Paulette Rink is in charge of the arrangements for the meeting. If you’d like to help (there’s plenty to do), contact her directly at stickhorse@pldi.net ,
580-336-1830.

Kim Barker is in charge of the elections committee for this meeting. That includes the mechanics of running the election. If you want to help with that, contact him at barker_k@hotmail.com, 580-732-0244. If you want to run for office in the coop, or for an open board seat, send your announcement to him so we can compile them and send them to the membership. It’s not a requirement that you do this, as candidates can be nominated from the floor of the meeting, but it will be helpful.

There won’t be any amendments proposed to the Articles of Incorporation this year as notification of any proposed amendment must be mailed to the members 25 days in advance of the meeting, and that deadline was today (as was previously announced). I didn’t receive notice of any, so no notification was sent.

I hope to see many of y’all at the annual meeting this year.

Continuing Chronicles of the Coop’s Christmas. . .
When last we spoke on the subject, that being the Third Day of Christmas, we (that being the residents of 1524 NW 21st Street) were somewhat henpecked by a Pastured Chicken who had arrived on the First Day of Christmas in a Stratford Peach Tree. Then there were the Two Calzones and Three Hand Crafted Soaps. The soaps are a real treat. I’ve tried many of the artisan soaps offered by our coop’s producers and given them as gifts, and even for a very low maintenance guy like me, they are a real treat. The calzones didn’t last long.

Anyway, we had fried chicken so we are no longer hen-pecked attitudinally, but we’ll keep singing about the Pastured Chicken in the Stratford Peach Tree anyway, because “Fried Pastured Chicken” just doesn’t fit. Well, if we divided more notes I guess it would work but there is a limit to that if we want this to be singable.

On the fourth day there were Four Dozen Cookies. And then on the Fifth Day Five Whole Wheat Loaves. It was the Sixth Day, however, when the jackpot really hit the big money — SIX DOZEN EGGS! We made Egg Salad Sandwiches with the Whole Wheat Bread for everybody!

Then came Seven Chuck Roasts, Eight Pounds of Sausage, Nine Pounds of Peanuts. I am told that soon coming will be Ten Butternut Squashes, Eleven Legs of Lamb, and Twelve Buffalo Rib-eyes! Eat at Bob’s! There’s plenty! Now if you want to sing this, here are the Twelve Days of the Coop’s Christmas arranged for easy reading, Days 1 through 12. Remember that you occasionally have to divide a note to work in all the syllables:

1. A pastured chicken in a Stratford Peach Tree
2. Two calzones
3. Three hand crafted soaps
4. Four dozen cookies
5. Five loaves of Whole Wheat Bread
6. Six Dozen Eggs
7. Seven Chuck Roasts
8. Eight Pounds of Sausage
9. Nine Pounds of Peanuts
10. Ten Butternut Squashes
11. Eleven Legs of Lamb
12. Twelve Buffalo rib eyes

You also may recall some consternation regarding the placing of hay in boxes underneath beds. Well, we got that one licked. Work is continuing on a large hay stack in the front yard for the camels. The neighborhood association will certainly LOVE this innovation. I don’t know how much hay a camel can eat, but they are big animals, bigger than a cow, and cows can munch plenty of hay, you bet. These camels are coming a long ways, so they will be hungry.
This will undoubtedly be the best Three Kings Hay Stack that these camels have ever seen. Fine Forages For Fabulously Fancy Fleet-Footed Fillies of the Dromedary Persuasion may be found at the House of Waldrop on NW 21st street in Oklahoma City for all hungry camels being ridden by Three Kings bringing gifts for good children.

Yes, well, I have been working very hard lately.

I hope everybody remembered to eat their black-eyed peas and greens on New Year’s Day, and I hope that next year we can eat black-eyed peas we bought through the coop! December 2008 will be very busy. There will probably be more than $100,000 in coop sales that month. We will need the nourishment. (We were right at $59,000 in December 2007.)

Come bon apetit’ with us at the Annual Meeting January 26th!

Bob Waldrop, Oklahoma Food Cooperative

PS. The Coop is now on FACEBOOK. www.facebook.com . I’ve started a group there, “Oklahoma Food Cooperators and Friends” to provide an online social networking opportunity for coop members and friends. If you’re on Facebook, do a groups’ search for “Oklahoma Food Cooperators” and you’ll find us. Post your favorite recipe or a review of your favorite coop product.

Bob’s Notes, November 2007: The Feasting Season Is Upon Us.

It used to be that people were very relieved when late fall began to transition into winter . The summer’s work was done. The heat was gone. It wasn’t so cold yet. It was the perfect time to begin a season of feasting and celebration.

And so it came to pass that Fall is the season of fairs, feasting, and fellowship. County fair. Church bazaar. Neighborhood garage sale. People gather and fellowship and trade. Well, I’ve been out and about wandering around the Oklahoma Food Cooperative’s Holiday Fair, now gathered in cyberspace at www.oklahomafood.coop , and it’s quite a site to see. I don’t think there is really any way to describe it in words. You have to go there and see it for yourself.

The air is filled with wondrous scents. Over here is a bakery – are those walls strawbale? – and the scent of freshly baked breads and cookies fills the air. Over there I some kiosks selling artisan body care products, whose scents pervade the area.

And sights to see? Strings of fiery red ristras, sacks of barley and wheat, cannisters of flour, hams hanging from ceilings, slabs of ribs and bacon and rolls of sausages are ready to be cut and packed. Baskets of turnips and peppers and cabbages and sweet potatoes and pecans and walnuts. You know everyone and everyone knows your name. You stop for some coffee or tea at the lunch counter, and decide on soup and pie also. The soup has been simmering all day and smells wonderful. And there are about a gillion different kinds of pie, so you decide to have two. Why not? It’s the feastin’ season!

All this and more is at www.oklahomafood.coop . Good food and good stuff that also does good, supporting family farmers and artisan producers across the state, and bringing your family and those you love the best the state has to offer. That’s what’s up at the Oklahoma Food Cooperative this month.

LET’S TALK ABOUT FEASTING FOODS!

More will be said in a later email this week about some other coop issues, but right now let’s look at food.

I’ve been reviewing the product lists, and here’s some items that appear to be very well stocked this month. Buy extra and store for later!

turnip greens

turnips

peanuts

Ground meat (beef, buffalo, lamb, pork)

Roasts (beef, buffalo, lamb, pork)

yogurt

cheese

whole wheat flour and berries

barley

Honey, jams, and jellies

Plus nearly all of our baked goods and prepared and processed foods and body care items, decorations, and gifts are available in good quantities.

RECIPES FOR GREENS

Recipes for turnips and greens.

Many ways to cook greens. The most traditional, southern way is to simmer them slowly with ham hocks or bacon. Arkansas bacon is particularly good for this I think. As the cooking proceeds, a rich vitamin-filled broth results, this is what is called “pot liquor” or “pot likker”. Serve with freshly baked corn bread.

1 cup cooked turnip greens contains: 20 calories, 1.2 g protein, 4.4 g carbohydrates, 3.5 g dietary fiber, 93% water, 550 RE vitamin A, 27 mg vitamin C, 118 mcg folate, 203 mg potassium and 137 mg calcium.

Traditional method: Use about 1/4 lb of bacon or ham hocks per five pounds or so of greens. Fry bacon until crisp. Bring water to boil, add salt and crushed red pepper. Crumble bacon over greens and add to the liquid. Simmer until done (at least 1 hour, if using ham hocks, simmer until the ham hocks are completely done and falling apart, which would be 3-4 hours. Many people add diced diced turnips to the greens for cooking. Turnip greens in particular need to be cooked longer than some of the more tender greens like spinach or mustard.

Cooked greens freeze just fine. While they are available, buy lots, cook and freeze for eating later!

Cream of Greens Soup

1 lb ham slice, with bone

8 cups water

1 large bunch of greens, washed and finely chopped

1 cup chopped onion

2 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped green onions

1/4 and 1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

5 cups milk

Place the water and ham in a pot, cover, and simmer for 3 hours. Remove ham, add the chopped greens, simmer for 1 hour. (If you are making this with turnip greens, add them at the beginning of the cooking. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a skillet, and the chopped onion, celery, and green onions, cook until tender. Put the cooked onion mixture in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth, mix with the greens. Melt 1/3 cup butter in a cooking pot, gradually add the flour and stir to make a roux. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Then add the greens and onion mixture, a dash of salt and hot sauce. Add the ham cut into chunks. Cook until thoroughly heated, do not boil. Makes about 10 cups.

Coop Cooking Note: We have ham, greens, flour, butter, and cream for sale this month. Instead of five cups of milk, try a mixture of cream and water or stock. Use whole wheat flour to make a roux (I generally sift whole wheat flour before I use it to make a roux). When I make this, I will certainly some jalapenos and maybe half a habanero or Scotch bonnet pepper to the onion mixture.

PUMPKIN MOUSSE

Cook the pumpkin, mash it, whip it with whipped cream or yogurt and honey. Chill & serve with a cookie from your favorite coop baker or other local bakery. Also good with cinnamon, nutmeg,
shaved chocolate sprinkled on top. (From Shauna Struby).

WHAT TO DO WITH 20 POUNDS OF GROUND MEAT?

Here’s an interesting site. http://hardys.freeservers.com/ground.htm

One thing people constantly ask me is “how do you find time to cook meals from local ingredients?” The answer to that is “cook ahead and use your freezer”. With 20 pounds of ground meat, you could make:

Ground Beef Mix
Taco Meat
Spaghetti Sauce with Meat
Lazy Lasagna
Hash Brown Casserole
Freezer Stash Meatballs
Bacon, Swiss and Mushroom Meatloaf

The recipes and the process to make all of these in one session and freeze them for later are described at the URL above

Do intelligent substitutions to increase the “coop content” of the recipes. . . instead of cream of mushroom soup, make a mushroom soup from your home-made stock. . . use yogurt cheese instead of sour cream. . . cream instead of evaporated milk. . . etc.

Here’s one for 15 pounds of pork: http://hardys.freeservers.com/pork.htm

Green Chile Pork (Crockpot)
BBQ Pork (Crockpot)
Roast Pork (Crockpot;)
Sweet and Sour Pork Chops
BBQ Pork Chops
Peppery Breaded Pork Chops

More resources for using your freezer to save you time in the kitchen:

http://www.cookofthemonth.com/

http://hardys.freeservers.com/plans.htm

SOME OF MY OTHER SLOW CONVENIENCE FOOD TIPS. . .

In my freezer, I typically keep. . .

Baked potatoes (use for home made hash browns, potato soup, mashed potatoes)

cooked hamburger patties (salisbury steak, hamburgers, homemade hamburger helper)

cooked meatballs

Meatloaf

Baked squash

Dough for bread and rolls

Pizza dough

cooked roux

Stock

Cooked roast

The most time consuming aspect of making gravy is making the roux, the mixture of flour and oil that is used to thicken. The way to finesse this is to make a large amount of roux (1 tablespoon flour to 1 tablespoon oil) and then freeze it. Put it in an ice cube tray, once it is frozen, pop them out, wrap in wax paper, store in a freezer container, use as needed.

When I bake potatoes or squash, I bake all that I have on hand. I wrap whatever we don’t eat right then, and put them in the fridge or the freezer, depending on when I plan to use them.

When I make a roast or a casserole, I make two (or three or four) and freeze what we don’t eat right them.

It is important to label anything you put in the freezer like this, and put the date on it too.

IN the pantry, I keep:

Tomato sauce

Whole wheat baking mix

baking soda

baking powder

yeast

cocoa

honey

cornstarch

THANKS to everyone for your participation! The order is open until Thursday, November 8^th, at midnight! Don’t forget to order!

Bob Waldrop, president and general manager

Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Bob’s Notes, August 2007

www.oklahomafood.coop/

I am perpetually behind, but I really did compile the “July Producer Notes” email I sent earlier this morning today, August 2nd, the subject line should have read “August Producer Notes”.

IN THIS EDITION:

+ Update on the capital campaign.

+ Answers to the two most common questions I am asked.

+ Increasing the supply of Oklahoma grown veggies.

+ Summer recipes! Onion, cucumber, and tomato salad, deviled ground meat, smoky potato packets, Mexican sushi, cucumber yogurt dip, and sloppy joes.

New members note: you can find 3-1/2 years of coop recipes by browsing the “back issues” of Bob’s Blog at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/bobsblog/ .

The August order is open until the 2nd Thursday, which is August 9th, so the order window is not quite as long as it was last month. Don’t wait until the last minute to order!  Delivery day is the 16th.  If you have lost your user ID and password, send an email to membership@oklahomafood.coop and don’t forget to include your full name in the email so we know who to look for.

UPDATE ON THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

We did very well with the first month of our capital campaign, even though we didn’t launch it until almost the end of the order:

Profits from T-shirt sales

(sum of deposits already collected

and balances due in August for delivered shirts):  $3,228.58

Capital Campaign Donations:   $1,473.00

General coop donation:  $35.00

Pledges to be paid within 3 months:  $360.00

TOTAL WAREHOUSE/SOFTWARE

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN July Revenue:  $5,096.58!

For August thus far, it looks like about $731 in donations and profits on T-shirts and totes.  We really need to boost this up this month to another $10,000 in cash or pledges (note the casual way I just threw that in), which would put us half-way to the full amount.  Anything we can’t raise as donations or profits from sales of coop merchandise will have to be borrowed so that we don’t deplete our working capital.  Borrowing money requires paying interest, which increases costs down the line, so success in the capital campaign saves us money over the long term. 

If we do borrow money, our preference is to borrow it from members and thus keep the interest payments “in the coop family.”  If you would be interested in loaning us money to help pay for these renovations, to be paid back over 3 years with interest, contact me in private email at prez@oklahomafood.coop and we can talk about the details.

I have placed a discussion of the importance of this capital campaign which I wrote earlier this week at our website at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/capitalcampaign.php .  Please take the time to read it — if nothing else, it will help remind you why we do what we do, and the importance of our work — and then join with your neighbors to make a generous “warehouse-raising” commitment to help.

Email your pledge to prez@oklahomafood.coop , or make a donation this month (product # 5679), and/or buy a T-shirt or a tote!  T-shirts and totes this month are in the Non-Food Section, under Apparel and Totes!

PS on financial issues. . . we did VERY WELL last month with our new payment terms.  We collected 99% of the money we were owed, which is better than any previous month.  Thanks to everybody for your cooperation, and thanks in particular to our pick-up site cashiers for their hard work and prompt response!

TWO COMMON QUESTIONS

This month I have answers for two of the most common questions I get:

1.  Why can’t I buy eggs through the coop?

We have several egg producers, but the fact is that demand for eggs is way ahead of supply.  Also, egg production is a bit seasonal.  When it gets hot and muggy, or cold and frigid, hens don’t like to lay eggs.  They take a break, wander in the pasture, do their chicken thing.  At least, the hens in the cooperative do this.  The hens for supermarket eggs are stuck in buildings and cages, so they don’t get to wander around much.

The good news is that supply is stimulating demand.  Several producers have either added eggs to their products, or are in the process of bringing more hens online.  It takes months to increase a flock to the “egg laying” stage, so it doesn’t happen overnight.  I’ve also been contacted by several potential new producers who read about us in the Oklahoma Living magazine, and they may be joining in future months.

It pays to check back often at the website, as producers often increase their inventories as the order progresses and it becomes more clear to them what production they will have on hand (this is true for both eggs and veggies).  For example, by the afternoon of the first day, we had sold out of eggs, but later that evening, a producer who had not had eggs listed previously, added 50 dozen.

2.  Why can’t I get any vegetables through the coop?

The same problem prevails here.  Demand is way ahead of supply.  The coop’s present once a month structure is a problem for vegetable producers.  If a grower expands his production to take care of the cooperative’s demand one week a month, what does he or she do with the other 3 weeks of extra vegetables? If he or she takes one month of production and sells it through the cooperative, what happens to his/her other customers that week?

INCREASING ACCESS TO OKLAHOMA GROWN VEGGIES

To increase the supply, I have started a project to encourage more market gardens, especially in urban areas.  The first meeting, for western Oklahoma County, was last Sunday and 40 people attended!  The next meeting will be in Norman, on Saturday, August 18th, 3 PM, at the Public Library.  The western Oklahoma County group has scheduled a follow-up meeting for the last Sunday of August, 3 PM, at Channing Unitarian Church in Edmond.  An eastern Oklahoma County meeting is being scheduled for September.  I would be happy to go on the road to Tulsa or the Muskogee-Tahlequah area to present on this subject.

So there may be a possibility of several new market growers coming on line next year, and several existing growers, who are not members of the cooperative, have indicated that they would be interested in selling through us if we go to a more than once a month schedule. 

INCREASING THE FREQUENCY OF COOP ORDERS

One of the things I think about a bit – in my copious spare time – is how do we get the cooperative onto a more frequent schedule?  A more than once a month schedule presents a number of serious issues, the most important one being workers  – we can’t expect the same volunteers to do what they do once a month on a weekly basis at the sorting site and our pick-up sites. 

One idea I have had is to structure a more frequent schedule around the regions of the cooperative.  We would continue to do our one monthly statewide order, but then during the spring-fall vegetable season, we could do 3 weekly regional orders.

With a regional order (IF the members and producers in these areas wanted to do this) –  members in Tulsa would order from Tulsa area producers.  Members in Oklahoma City would order from OKC area producers, and members in Norman would order from Norman-area producers.  If enough producers develop in the Muskogee-Tahlequah area, there could be a regional order there too. 

Thus, our statewide route system, which involves a lot of work and expense, would not operate on the 3 weekly orders.

Since these are regional orders, there would be less work at each site. This would reduce the amount of work, and thus the operating  expense.  By dividing the work among several sites, the amount of time required would be less, so it might be easier to recruit a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th set of delivery day volunteers.  Or this might be the point where we would start hiring part-time employees to bridge the gap betweent the ability of volunteers to handle four orders and month and the amount of work that would be necessary. 

We would only do this during the growing season, and presumably go back to the once a month schedule over the winter. . . although we depending on how things went, we might want to simply downshift a bit, and during the winter do 2 orders a month — one statewide, and one regional.

At this point, this is only a discussion topic.  But if we are going to do this in the spring of 2008, we would need to make a commitment before the end of this year, so that growers could expand their production, and the potential new growers that are just starting out could be assured of a market in the spring.  We may decide to put it off for a year and move to this schedule in the spring of 2009.  The thing to remember is that we have to make our commitment well in advance of the growing season so the growers know what market they will have.

Please let us know what you think about this (all stakeholders attention!).  Comments can be sent to me at prez@oklahomafood.coop , or you can post publicly at okfoodret@yahoogroups.com , or if you are a delivery day worker, you can post at deliveryday@oklahomafood.coop .  It can also be discussed on our regional lists, neok@oklahomafood.coop , tqfood@yahoogroups.com , and swok@oklahomafood.coop . 

Whatever happens with this, it would need to pay for itself.  That is, we would need to make enough off of the coop commissions that the coop expenses would be offset over the season.  Like many activities, we might have to feed it a bit as it gets started, but I would want to see it break even before the season was over.

SUMMER RECIPES FOR BON APETITIN’ PLEASURE!

Onion, Cucumber, and Tomato salad

Chop some onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes to a small size.  Salt and pepper to taste. Dress with your favorite flavored vinegar, or with some yogurt cheese.  Serve with crackers or toast.  This is a fast, easy, and very flavorful summer treat.

SLOPPY JOES

This is a recipe for Sloppy Joes “made from basic ingredients”, not an “open a can and dump” recipe, although that is fine too.

1 pound ground meat (beef, buffalo, lamb, venison)

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic or some garlic powder

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

3/4 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon brown sugar  (optional, depending on taste)

salt and pepper to personal taste

Brown the ground meat with the onions.  If there is any liquid, drain it off.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes.  Serve on buns, toast, or flatbreads.  Makes about 6 servings.

CUCUMBER YOGURT DIP

Cucumbers naturally go with yogurt.  Just ask anybody from Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, or India.

1 medium cucumber — peeled, seeded, and roughly grated

1 cup yogurt

1 minced garlic clove

Some finely chopped mint leaves (to taste, or leave them out entirely)

Salt to taste

Grate the cucumber into a bowl, and then gently squeeze the water out of it. Combine with other ingredients.  Use as a dip, or in place of mayonaise on a sandwich, a dressing on a salad, it is especially good with naan bread.  See my previous Bob’s Note for June 2006 at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/bobsblog/?p=60 for two recipes for this stove-top version of a flavorful flatbread from India.

MEXICAN SUSHI

No raw fish though.  A more common name for these would be “roll-ups”.  We used to make these with creamed cheese, but now we do them with Wagon Creek ricotta.  Simply mix your favorite “savories” with ricotta cheese, and spread on a flour tortilla.  Roll it up, and slice into rounds.  Voila, Mexican Sushi.  Some of our favorite savories to mix with the filling include. . . chopped green olives (and some of the olive pickling juice). . . chopped onions and habanero salsa (our homemade version which alas we are presently out of, we are cheering on our habanero bushes, however). . . roasted garlic can be combined with any of these, chipotle peppers are also great.

SMOKY POTATO PACKETS

Try this on your next camp-out and add a Gourmet flair to your meal.

First, start your campfire.  Then lay out 8 pieces of aluminum foil (about 12″ x 8″ each). Brush each piece with olive oil. Thinly slice 2 pounds of potatoes, and divide them in 8 parts, lay them overlapping (like shingles) in a circle in the middle of the foil. Slice an onion into rings, and arrange some rings over each packet of potatoes. Drizzle the potatoes and onions with olive oil, and sprinkle with fresh crumbled rosemary, salt and pepper.  Bring the two large edges of the foil together and seal, and then do the same with the two short edges.  Lay on a medium fire until the potatoes are cooked (20-25 minutes, be sure to check them).

DEVILED GROUND MEAT

Actually, this should be called “Heavenly Ground Meat”.  Cook your favorite ground meat and let it cool.  (This is a good use for any kind of leftover meat.)  Put it in a food processor or blender so it is thoroughly minced.  Then, use your favorite recipe for deviled eggs, only using the meat instead of the eggs.  We never make a plate of deviled eggs the same two times in a row, so you can be really creative.  The traditionals are mayonaise and mustard, but don’t let it stop there.  Substitute yogurt cheese or even plain yogurt for the mayo.  Maybe some balsamic vinegar?  Minced onion and garlic . . .  cheese (in fact, deviled cheese spread, which is basically a home-made cheese whiz, is one of our favorite household summer treats). . . minced olives. . . hot peppers. . . sweet peppers. . . cucumber yogurt dip. . . endless flavorful possibilities.  Make sure to keep it cold, however, as some of these ingredients would spoil rapidly at room temperature.

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That’s the round-up for this month.  As product updates and news come in, I will periodically update!

Bob Waldrop, Oklahoma Food Cooperative

www.oklahomafood.coop

Bob’s Notes, June 2007

Part the First

Let’s talk about JUNE at the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. This month’s recipes include an easy (and I mean real easy) meat pie, a great glaze for all meats and poultry made from Oklahoma jams, and some thoughts about roasted beets. Oh yes, and Chicken Fried Rattlesnake. I know, I know, no one sells rattlesnake in the coop, but the recipe was too good to pass up. There are also some thoughts about enhancing the flavors of stir fries. And a recipe for yogurt pudding.

How can I help the coop?

We have received a tremendous response to the news that the coop has been running a deficit the last 3 months and lots of ideas for increasing our revenue and offers of help.

The most important thing that people can do to help the Oklahoma Food Cooperative is to order regularly. As our gross revenues grow, so do our net coop revenues. As our producers sell more, we become stronger. If you haven’t ordered for a while, but want to see us continue as a viable option for Oklahoman who want the best food for their families, open a basket for June and put some of our great Oklahoma foods in it for your family to enjoy! “Now is the time for all Oklahoma Food cooperators to come to the assistance of their local food system!”

Planning is proceeding at a rapid pace to produce T-shirts and grocery totes with the coop’s logo. The board meets on Sunday and will consider our options. We may be able to start taking orders this month for delivery in July. I hope everybody decides to buy a coop grocery tote and T-shirt.

Volunteer Team

Our volunteer team is working on a list of all the volunteer opportunities in the cooperative. To do that, we need some information from our existing volunteer team. If you have done any volunteer work for the Oklahoma Food Cooperative in the past year, please send an email to volunteer@oklahomafood.coop with your name and the volunteer task(s) you have done or are presently doing.

Warehouse Possibilities

We are waiting to hear from an electrician and a roofer about the costs of repairs for the warehouse we are considering at 1240 SW 15th), so we hope to have more info available shortly on that.

More Chinese Food Scandals Upcoming?

There has been a LOT of internet traffic in the past month about problems with Chinese food imports. The tainted pet food scandal appears to be but the tip of that iceberg. Significant concerns are being expressed about standards in the Chinese organic food industry. Many packaged organic products contain organic ingredients that are sourced from China, and US watchdogs have been sounding an alarm that the same problems we saw in the pet food scandal may also exist in the Chinese organic food industry. Most prepared food manufacturers do not list “country of origin” for their ingredients, so the only way you can find out that information is by contacting the manufacturer, and even they may not know. Eating local and cooking meals from basic ingredients are not just the latest fads, they are important aspects of your household’s food security.

May Local Food Coop Workshop

The May workshop was a great success. All who attended agreed it was well worth the time and expense involved in coming to Oklahoma City. Many thanks to all who made the event possible – the speakers, the volunteers, the students. Now we have the first “graduates” of our “Local Food Coop Institute” who are out there “sowing seeds” for their own local food systems.

Curious News Notes. . .

VP for Producers Kim Barker sent a few interesting news notes this month. . . Monsanto’s research facility in UK is no longer serving GMO food at the demands of the employees. I wonder what they know that we aren’t allowed to know….I read a couple days ago in Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, that if each family in the US would eat either one organic meal or one locally grown meal a week that would save 1.1 million barrels of oil per week. New research out of France says that GMO food is causing liver and kidney damage in humans.

Speaking of Barbara Kingsolver’s new book. . . several members have written me and told me they enjoyed it a lot.

Mother Earth News

Shauna Struby sent this note: the June/July 2007 issue of Mother Earth News has a special section devoted to agriculture and food quality issues … stories by a variety of writers — Barbara Kingsolver, Terry Tempest Williams, — Willie Nelson, pres of Farm Aid on the farm bill — stories on range of topics — weedless organic gardening, the animal ID plan, building better garden soil, wise watering tips, etc. http://www.motherearthnews.com/

RECIPES

Glaze for Meat or Poultry

This was developed by Gerald Duke, a coop member and chef. He was recently preparing a banquet at Epiphany Church, and used some jam (that was left over from the local food coop organizing workshop) to make a delicious glaze.

1 jar peach jam

2 tablespoons grape jam

1 cup honey

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine in a pan and gently warm over a medium heat. When the meat or poultry is almost done, brush liberally with the glaze and then put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Easy Very Tasty Meat Pie

With the nice weather, I haven’t moved my cooking outside yet, so I am still using my oven. This is a good recipe for leftovers. I recently had some leftover gravy (remember, Always Make Extra Gravy). I browned some ground beef with chopped onion, carrot, and garlic and then added some chopped cooked, leftover veggies. I added the gravy and mixed well. For the crust topping, I mixed 1 cup flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder, and then I added 2 tablespoons of olive oil. In a separate bowl, I combined 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup water, 1 cup flour, and 2 eggs, and mixed that thoroughly. I then added the liquids to the dry ingredients, and mixed that until there were no lumps. I poured this batter over the meat-vegetable-gravy mixture, and baked it in the oven at 400 degrees until the crust was brown and a knife inserted in the middle came out clean (about 30 minutes). This amount of batter was sufficient to cover a large cast iron skillet. If you are using a smaller pan, then cut the batter recipe in half.

Roasted Beets

This is beet season, and while there are undoubtedly many different recipes for beets, I like them simply roasted. I don’t peel them, I just wash them good and then usually bake them in a crock pot, with just a little water on the bottom so they don’t scorch. Depending on the size of the beets (and the crockpot), they will bake in 2 or 3 hours in a crockpot. As they roast, they get sweeter. You don’t need butter or anything.

Whole Wheat Pancake Mix

This is the Whole Wheat pancake mix I make and use at home. It is based on my basic “1 cup recipe” for whole wheat pancakes.

10 cups whole wheat flour

5 tablespoons baking powder

5 teaspoons baking soda

1-1/4 cups oil

Use a large mixing bowl, and combine all of the dry ingredients. I find that it is best to use a mixer. Add the oil, and again use the mixer to combine it thoroughly. Store in a tightly-covered container in the refrigerator. Whole wheat flour should always be refrigerated. To make pancakes:

1 cup whole wheat pancake mix

1 egg

1 cup yogurt

1/4 cup water (optional)

Put the pancake mix in a bowl, break the egg into the bowl, add the yogurt, and mix. If the batter is too thick for your taste, add about 1/4 cup water. This recipe makes about 10-12 dollar-size pancakes.

Chicken Fried Rattlesnake

Of course no one sells rattlesnake meat through the coop, but you never know when you might end up with a dead rattlesnake on your hands. This is Oklahoma, after all. So in the spirit of always being prepared for unusual occasions. . . OR for a trip to the Waynoka Rattlesnake Hunt. . . First, catch and kill the snake (carefully!). Then skin and gut it. Boil it for about 15-30 minutes (until the meat comes off the bones easily). Then pull the meat off the bones, coat in seasoned flour, and fry in oil in a skillet. Voila, Chicken Fried Rattlesnake. (Recipe courtesy of Ed Carp of Texas, but I am pretty sure it works with Oklahoma rattlesnakes too.)

Stir Fries

Dev Vallencourt of High Tides and Green Fields sent me these thoughts about using Oklahoma greens in stir fries. . .

We do a LOT of stir fry in our kitchen because we always have about 10 different greens growing, ground meat or stir-fry meat is so much less expensive, and we just love rice. In an effort to cut down on the amount of salt from soy sauce, we started using vinegar in addition to the soy. Wow! what a boost in the flavors. Generally it’s rice vinegar, but wine vinegars work well, too. When basil season comes around, we’ll be trying the basil vinegars, too. Should be great. On our steamed or parboiled greens, we always dash vinegar on them along with butter. Yummy. We’re hoping that when we have the greenhouse up and running we’ll be able to provide greens in quantity all year long. We aren’t going to heat the space, so tomatoes are out, but greens like it colder anyway.

Yogurt Pudding

Here is my favorite recipe for home-made chocolate pudding. You can make it with milk or with yogurt.

1/4 cup cocoa ! 2/3 cup sugar | 2 eggs | 1 tsp vanilla (optional) | 3 tbsp flour | 2 cups milk | 2 tbsp butter (optional)

Mix flour, cocoa, and sugar together, add milk and beaten eggs, mix very well, so there are no lumps. Add butter and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Chill and serve, or let cool slightly and eat it warm. To make this a yogurt pudding, use 1 cup yogurt and 1 cup water (or use 2 cups of yogurt). You can make this a banana pudding by leaving out the cocoa and adding sliced bananas when it has finished cooking.

I am thinking about compiling a list of Oklahoma Food “rules”, which would really be guides to effectively and frugally and deliciously using local produced foods.

The Number One rule has to be, no question about it:

ALWAYS MAKE EXTRA GRAVY.

Or if your prefer, ALWAYS MAKE EXTRA SAUCE.

Earlier today I fixed hamburger patties, with mashed potatoes and broccoli. I fixed gravy using some stock I made and frozen a couple of months ago. (Besides the stock, I used crushed red pepper, garlic, and Holder’s “Better than Salt” seasoning.) After mostly cooking the patties, I took them out of the pan, made the gravy, added them back to the pan, and let them simmer for a few minutes.

It was a delicious lunch, made with coop beef and coop stock. I always make more gravy than I need for a meal, because it is so useful with leftovers.

Dinner time arrived. I had leftover gravy, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. I am saving the potatoes for potato cakes at breakfast tomorrow. So I started some water boiling for macaroni, grated 1 cup of coop cheese, and started warming up the gravy.

I had made a thick gravy, so I added a bit of the liquid from the broccoli, all of the brocolli, and two tablespoons of coop cream. A cheese sauce really calls for milk, but I have found that a couple of tablespoons of coop cream is all you need in a gravy like this to make it very creamy. There were about 2 cups of gravy and broccoli in the pan) so the general rule of thumb would be 1 tablespoon of cream per cup of whatever stock you are using for a sauce or gravy. I mixed that thoroughly, turned the heat down (I was using an electric skillet), and added the cheese, stirring the mixture.

When the cheese was melted and thoroughly mixed (not long), I turned the skillet off. Once the cheese has melted and combined with whatever sauce you have in the pan, turn the heat off. Excessive heating of cheese sauces brings on curdling. That doesn’t affect the taste, but it does affect the texture. So once you add the cheese, gentle heat, quickly stir until melted and combined, and off goes the heat. Instead of grated cheese, I could have used riccotta cheese from the coop, in which case I would probably have added some fresh oregano and basil and onion or shallots from my garden.

Why did I use an electric skillet instead of the stove? I’m glad you asked. I have an electric stove, and for one-dish meals like this, using an electric skillet is more energy efficient than the higher-watt full size stove.

Meanwhile, back to supper. . . the macaroni was ready, so I drained it and added it to the skillet, and mixed everything together. Voila, homemade broccoli helper with cheesey, beefy, creamey sauce. This is one way to spell “comfort food”.

With tax and coop tip, the hamburger was about $3.67/lb. The organic potatoes and broccoli were about $2. The stock I price at about $1/quart, and I used 1 pint, so it was 50 cents. The cost of lunch was $3.09 per person.

For supper. . . Two tablespoons of coop cream (about 32 tablespoons per pint), 22 cents. 1/4 pound grated cheese — $1.25. Macaroni — 50 cents. Leftover gravy and broccoli — “priceless”. Literally. Or rather, the cost was already accounted for at lunch. Cost per person, 98 cents.

Breakfast was coop eggs ($1), coop sausage (about 40 cents), coop toast (30 cents), and coop yogurt (about 40 cents). Cost per person: $1.05 .

Average cost per person for Saturday’s meals was $1.71.

Speaking of breakfast, which we were earlier, I used to make a pot of coffee in the morning and half of it would end up on the compost pile. Well, that was just plain foolish. The solution was not to drink the whole pot. Instead, I bought some one cup drip-o-laters. This is a handy 2 piece kitchen gadget that makes one perfect cup of dripped coffee. They are widely available on the internet. That way I don’t waste one drop of that wonderful certified organic fair trade coffee that I buy through the coop. It’s too precious to waste.

Lunch could have been a better value if I had followed the dietitian’s advice and only had one patty per person at lunch. That would have brought the price of that meal down to $2.17 and the daily average down to $1.39/person/meal.

So that’s why I always make extra gravy. You can use it to make extra-frugal meals later that day or the next, to help reduce the total cost of your groceries while at the same time using a lot of Oklahoma grown foods in your meals.

Bob Waldrop, Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Bob’s Notes, Part the First
November 2007

History and Future. . .

Three years ago, we launched the first Oklahoma Food Cooperative order. We had about 60 members, and that first order grossed about $3500. It was a riot. We had to figure everything out from nothing. I remember showing up to delivery day with only a hazy idea of how we would proceed. I didn’t, however, tell anyone I didn’t have a clue as to what we should be doing. Like everybody else that day, we just went forward as if we knew all about how to operate a local cooperative order-delivery system, and thus continued the process which began the previous year of creating the self-fulfilling prophecy of hope which is the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

Nobody had ever done anything quite like this before. We had a list of products on the internet and that was it. Everybody sent me emails with their orders and I copied and pasted those emails into word processing documents to make invoices for producers and customers. They were so ugly I appended an apology to them, saying, “We will do better next month.”

And we did. Better, that is. Emma McCauley and Sandra Storey then began the process of building our online shopping system. The first thing was an order system so that all we had to do was enter product codes and amounts, then we got the shopping cart, and everything has grown from that simple beginning.

Thirty-six months, and four hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars in groceries and non-food products later, here we are at the November 2006 Oklahoma Food Cooperative order. We have 868 members. We have helped start similar cooperatives in Nebraska and North Texas, both of which are presently operating, and we are working with folks in other states who are interested. In February, I will present a workshop in Ontario, Canada, which will include info about the cooperative. I know, February is a great time to go to Canada, but if you want to talk with farmers, generally the winter is when you do it.

In the beginning, we didn’t know all the details of what was to come. There were any number of people who predicted disaster and failure. But we had our eyes firmly fixed on a vision of community, social justice, environmental sustainability, and economically viable local food systems. That vision continues to sustain and inspire us today, although it seems like lately I’ve been so busy with the details I haven’t had much time to contemplate that vision.

There are many stories that could be told. People tell me, “My kids would never eat tomatoes until we got tomatoes from the coop.” “I never knew hamburger could taste so good. Now my family complains if I buy ground meat from the grocery store.” “Bob, I’m making the mortgage payment on my farm from my coop sales.” “We decided to stop spraying our pastures with herbicides.” “Going to delivery day was like going to a barn raising in the old days.” And so on and so forth.

The coop itself is a story. We have been written up all over the country. People follow our progress and pay attention to how we are doing. They send me emails and ask questions. I get phone calls from people in Germany who want what we have to sell.

You are part of that story. We are our members, a growing community of common purpose and hope who reject the idea of food as fuel and commodity, and embrace the authentic regional foods and tastes of our area. Oklahoma food is good enough for us. We are producers and customers, re-weaving the ties that once bound rural and urban areas together in mutual support and service. The relationships we build today will serve us well for decades to come.

We don’t know all the details of where the story is going or where our journey will eventually take us. But it has been said, “All the way to heaven is heaven”, which is a way of saying that the journey itself is worth the effort and the work. And of course, the food is certainly worth our investment.

The future is not without its challenges — in particular, understanding how to scale up our operations to meet the continually increasing demand. But I figure that if we have made it this far, we can find the rest of the way forward. The hard part was four years ago, when this was just a crazy idea that was fun to talk about. At any time, we could have decided, “this idea is too crazy, we should just abandon it.” That would have been easy to do. As my friend Sean said, when I told him of my idea of a local food cooperative, “It sounds like a lot of work, Bob.” And it has been work, and will be even more work in the future, and so what? The journey, and the goal we reach toward, is worth the price.

Thanks to everybody who is making this cooperative a success — producers, customers, volunteers, leadership. I am honored to be considered part of your company.

Bob Waldrop, president
Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Bob’s Notes, October 2006, Part the Third
Oktoberfeasting Season!

NEW ON THE ORDER LIST. . .

The order this month is open through the evening of October 12th. Delivery Day is October 19th.

Since the order opened, several new and returning products have been added to the product list.

Susan Bergen of Peach Crest Farm has added egg plant and zucchini squash. One way to cook the eggplant is to slice it, dip it in a bit of egg and water, and then flour, pan fry.

Dev Vallencourt of High Tides and Green Fields has added gourmet chili powders to her list of products this month. She still has fresh hot peppers, and she has dried hot peppers, and now she has chili powders, all grown on her Norman area farm. Fresh basil is still available this month, so there’s time for more pesto and herb highlights for your fall meals. She says next month she will have chili powder gift boxes for your holiday enjoyment.

Pam Ferry of Healing Herbals has added Coffee scrub, luffa soap, and a new lip balm. All are made with organic hemp oil, olive oil, infused with vanilla bean, cardamon, ginger, & cinnamon & essential oils of juniper and orange; scrubs will also contain raw sugar. She also has quite a few fresh herbs this month.

Other fresh vegetables available this month include:

Pumpkins, cushaw squash, and decorative fall gourds from McLemore Farm.

Log-grown Shitaake mushrooms from Lost Creek Mushroom Farm.

You can surely make a meal out of what these folks deal!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here in the northern hemisphere, the feasting seasons begin in the fall. The harvests are coming in, the hard work of spring and summer is done, the heat has broken, the cold and snows of winter have yet to come. Fall has always been a time to embrace family and friends, to renew friendships, and to join together at tables of fellowship in meals of joy and celebration. Through good times and hard times, the fruit of the earth has sustained us.

In recent decades, there are those who would have us believe that this attitude towards food and food systems is a bit quaint. Instead of wholesome produce from the good earth, they offer us industrialized packaged “meals” drenched in pesticides, herbicides, and growth hormones, and they spend billions to convince us that this is actually better than what we knew before. Slowly but surely, one bite at a time, our understanding of food has been commodified, cheapened, and industrialized.

Comes now the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. We have no advertising budget. We have no power in the halls of government. All we have is our food, but as it turns out, that is all we need. Hand someone a plate of Oklahoma food and a fork and they find out quickly what this is all about.

There is a better way to do food, a way that embraces the seasonal foods of this region and celebrates them in our meals.

I received an email this week from a coop member, he said, “Pumpkins are feeding my family this fall!” Cream of pumpkin soup, baked pumpkin with butter, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie – he wasn’t describing the hard times his family was experiencing, but rather the joys of discovering the authentic tastes of the glorious Oklahoma fall season. So many people think of pumpkins as something only for carving to make Jack O’Lanterns. They don’t even think of the connection between a real pumpkin and pumpkin pie; pumpkin pie is something bought at a bakery, or made from canned pumpkin (which as I pointed out last month, may very well be canned squash, not pumpkin). Besides pumpkins, there are cushaw squash. A cushaw squash is a lot of squash, no doubt, we baked one last week, and froze portions for several meals later. I thawed one such portion out last night and we had it with our beef stroganonoff – which I made with some leftover chuck roast (100% grass-fed), onions, garlic, and hot peppers from our garden, the last container of beef stock from our freezer for the gravy, and the final touch, some yogurt cheese mixed with the gravy instead of sour cream.

In the fall we get turnips and squash and lettuce and radishes and Jerusalem artichokes, eggplants and hot peppers and sweet peppers and all of it is good and good for you. Here at the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, this month there are 1,335 different products listed.

Next month will be our third anniversary linking Oklahoma farmers and producers with urban customers. As of last month, we have sold more than $420,000 in Oklahoma food products, and the producers received 95% of that money. Not bad for folks who pretty much have invented this as we go along. As we go forward into the future, we appreciate the continued support and personal responsibility that our members are showing as we continue to build a business that is socially just, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable.

A sustainable local food system is not built overnight. It’s not something that just happens. If we want a sustainable food system, then there must be a market for the products of that system. We make that choice each time we decide to order food directly from Oklahoma farmers instead of supporting the commodified, industrialized, pesticide and herbicide drenched supermarket food system. That’s how we bon apetitit all the way to our Oktoberfest feast!

Bob Waldrop, president
Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Bob’s Notes, October 2006, Part the Second
Out and About the Cooperative, plus RECIPES for your bon apetitin’ Oktoberfest-feastin.

CONTENTS:
New Products since the order opened
OSU-OKC Farmers Market Fall Festival
Slow Food Picnic a Great Success
Myrna’s Bale Raising
Delivery Day Situations
Cushaw Squash a la mode de Cooperative
Pork Chop Delight
Breakfast Tacos
Tortillas and Eggs
Gerald’s Buffalo Prime Rib
Custard

[Cue polka music. . . ]

NEW PRODUCTS SINCE ORDER OPENED

Several new or returning products have been added since this order opened.

Peach Crest Farm has added egg plant and zucchini summer squash.

Cattletracks has added a second Oktoberfest special – Organic Minute Steaks, each order includes a recipe for a great Philadelphia-style minute steak sandwich.

It looks like the Wood Chuck Chop has been steadily adding new country crafts from their collective of rural artists — Screw Doodles and other original art pieces. And a “Puzzle Cat” which sounds like a great gift.

Shannon’s Sewing Studio has added a bunch of pictures of her products.

OKC-OSU FARMER’S MARKET FALL FESTIVAL
Saturday, October 7th, will be the annual Fall Festival at the OKC-OSU Farmers Market, 8 AM to 1 PM, 400 North Portland in Oklahoma City. Live music, carnival games, costume contests, tree fest (free tree seedlings), OSU-OKC annual fall bedding plant sale, PLUS the regular farmers market.

SLOW FOOD PICNIC
The 2nd Annual Slow Food Picnic at the Harn Homestead in Oklahoma City was great fun. I’m pretty sure they met their attendance estimate of 200+. The weather was great, a bit windy, but not hot, not cold, perfect fall weather. Besides the coop, PDH Farms (Don McGehee), Charles Horn Organic Farm, Honey Hill Farm, had tables. Besides these co-op members, No Name Ranch and Krebs Brewery were there. Coop members Bill Smith and Chris Kirby had a great booth on farm to school and other local ag issues. The food met expectations and then some. And there was plenty of it, there were even deviled eggs left for seconds! Many kudos are due the organizers, the chefs, and the farmers who produced the food. We met a lot of coop members there, and gave away 100+ brochures, had lots of nice visits with folks.

I have nearly perfected my “table spiel”, which requires saying the most in the least amount of time. “We make it easy for you to buy food directly from Oklahoma farmers, you order online, and then on the 3rd Thursday the farmers come to town, we divide everything up into the customer orders, and then the groceries go out to 17 pickup places across the state. What part of town do you live in?” When they answer I tell them our closest pickup site and hand them a coop flyer.

MYRNA’S BALE RAISING
By all accounts, coop member Myrna Fletcher’s “bale raising” for her strawbale home in Norman was a great success. You can view a Channel 9 OKC story about the event by going to http://www.newsok.com/video/ , click on the drop down menu for October 2nd, and you will find the story, “Norman woman’s home made of straw.” Congratulations to Myrna and all the volunteers who helped!

DELIVERY DAY SITUATIONS
It is important that members take responsibility for their own memberships. We don’t have employees, we have volunteers who are fellow members of the cooperative investing their own sweat equity to help create a viable local food system. One issue that seems to be increasing as we grow is members who forget to pickup their order. Most of our pickup sites have limited ability to freeze or refrigerate items overnight. If the order is at one of the other OKC pickup sites, it can cause me to make a special trip to rescue the food and then if there is a lot of frozen items, a trip to Epiphany to store the food in the church freezers, because my home freezer is presently packed to the limit. We do what we have to do for the coop, but we should also all be respectful of the time and effort of our volunteers and site hosts and strive to not make any extra work for people.

So please, if you order, mark the delivery day and time on your calender. If you aren’t sure what the time or location is, go to http://www.oklahomafood.coop , log in with your user ID and password, and click on the link to your online invoice. The invoice should have this information on it. If you have any questions, call me or the site host.

We do understand that emergencies come up, and in such cases, the earlier we know about the situation, the easier it is for us to make other arrangements, usually by holding the food at the Epiphany sorting site for pickup later. On delivery day, if something has come up and you can’t get your food at any of our pickup sites across the statea, call me at 405-613-4688 as early as possible.

When you pick up your food, go over your invoice in detail and make sure everything is there. If you leave an item behind, it takes more of your time and more volunteer time to rescue the items, so it is better that you get them on your first trip and avoid the second trip.

If you know in advance that you are going to be out of town, in the Oklahoma City area you can make arrangements with me to hold your order until you will be back. For these kinds of “arrangements in advance” the best method is to send me an email, at bwaldrop@cox.net , that way I have a written note for your request and can handle it appropriately. I will reply to the email to figure out your pickup arrangements. We are happy to do this to help customers, but the key factor that makes this as easy as delivery day is to make the arrangements in ADVANCE.

We are always open to suggestions as to how we can do delivery day better. We now handle thousands of items each delivery day, and 99% of everything gets to the customers in a timely way, but that final 1% can take as much of key volunteers’ time over the next few days as the original delivery day itself, so you can see how important it is that we take care of these details.

RECIPES

CUSHAW SQUASH A LA MODE DE COOPERATIVE
I baked a McLemore Farms cushaw squash this last week. I simply sliced it in half, scooped out the seeds and “fluff” (whatever that stringy stuff is that surrounds the seeds), rubbed it with Wagon Creek Creamery butter, and drizzled some Honey Hill Farm honey on it. Then I cut it in a couple more pieces and popped it in the oven at 375 degrees for about an hour and a half, in a covered container. That made a LOT of squash, more than two people could eat. This was not a problem, however. I simply packaged the leftover squash in meal sized portions and filled the last empty spaces of my freezer with it. Now I have a major part of six meals already prepared, all I need to do is thaw and reheat. I can also make pies with the cooked squash. (Just use your favorite pumpkin pie recipe, only add cushaw squash pulp.)

PORK CHOP DELIGHT
Make this with pork chops or pork steaks. I usually make this in an electric skillet or a cast iron skillet. Brown the pork chops on both sides, I usually put some ground black pepper on them before browning. Set aside. In the same pan, add chopped onion, chopped jalapenos, chopped herbs (oregano, thyme, sage, minced garlic, and olive oil if you need it, and saute until the onions are about half clear. You can also add shredded carrot and/or shredded summer squash. Add two cups of rice and saute for a couple of minutes. Add 2 cups beef stock, 2 cups water, and stir so everything is mixed up. Lay the pork chops or steaks on top, cover and cook on low (if electric skillet), or 325 degrees (if oven) for about 35-45 minutes (until the rice is down, your mileage may vary depending on your rice).

BREAKFAST TACOS
Fry some sausage or bacon, when it is almost done, add some leftover rice (we usually have this breakfast the morning after we have Pork Chop Delight for dinner), and a couple of beaten eggs from an Oklahoma farmer. Serve wrapped up in a hot tortilla from your favorite locally owned tortilleria.

TORTILLAS AND EGGS
Fry some bacon or sausage, when done remove from pan. Tear 3 or 4 corn tortillas into small pieces and saute 3-4 minutes in the pan you cooked the sausage. I like to add onions, garlic, and sliced hot peppers when I add the tortillas. Beat 2 eggs, add to pan, stirring constantly while the eggs scramble. Serves 3, depending on how hungry they are. This is a good way to stretch your eggs to serve more people at less cost.

GERALD’S BUFFALO PRIME RIB
Each year I get whole buffalo rib-eye sections from Wichita Buffalo for the musician’s appreciation dinner at Epiphany Church. Gerald Duke, a chef who is a member of our parish, cooks the meal. Last year he rubbed the outside of the sections liberally with pickling spices, and turned out a superb meal. (You buy “Pickling Spices” at a grocery store, usually in the canning section, note that I am not talking about “Pickling Salt”.)

CUSTARD
Eggs are in abundance at the coop this fall, and custard is a favorite treat that is easy to make.

Mix together 3 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1 tsp vanilla until smooth. Add 2-1/2 cups whole milk and mix until well blended. Pour into custard cups, and place cups in a 9 x 13″ pan and place in a 350 degree oven. Pour about 1 inch of water into the pan, don’t splash any into the cups. Back for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of a cup comes out clean. Makes about 6 servings. You can also make a custard pie by pouring the filling into an unbaked pie crust. I can’t wait to try this with real cream.

Nearly three years of Bob’s Notes columns and recipes are archived at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/bobsblog/ .

Bob Waldrop
Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Bob’s Notes, October 2006
Part the First: ROLL OUT THE BARREL FOR OKTOBERFEST!

To properly understand this month’s Bob’s Notes, click on http://www.247polkaheaven.com/ and start the POLKA MUSIC! I have learned a lot about polka music getting ready for this month’s order. You’ve got your basic German polka, and then there’s the Slovenian, Czechoslovakian, including “Tex-Czech”, and several others, all available on the internet. Who knew?

Now, with the appropriate background music, we proceed directly to the FOOD. OY! OY! OY! (No Bob, you can’t do shots of Jagermeister this early in the day!)

NEW AND NOTABLE THIS MONTH. . .

Christian Cheese has a new cheese this month, “Dill Cheese”. Shred this and put it on a hot dog. They were featured last month on the Food Network Food Finds program.

PDH Farms is bringing us new products this month that many of us have been waiting for – old fashioned style hot dogs, hot links, bologna, and cajun and chorizo link sausages. The hot links will not have the red dye so common in commercial products. He has updated his inventories and he has his full line of other pork cuts available this month, including bacon. (He has also asked me to thank everyone in the cooperative for the “shower” of cards and notes expressing sympathy for the tragic death of his daughter last month.)

Granny is introducing 3 new gift packs, getting ready for the upcoming holiday season (only THREE more Oklahoma Food delivery days until Christmas!) – Jam, and two different sizes of sweet breads. She also has 2 new jams – strawberry and raspberry.

Shannon Ewald of Shannon’s Sewing Studio who made her debut with the co-op last month has several new products this month – cloth diapers, more varieties of hair bows, and reusable cloth pads for feminine needs. She says she is willing to answer questions about diapers and the reusable feminine pads, just email her and she can explain everything.

April at Earth Elements Farm is introducing a four pack of sugar free banana bread muffins. And she has a new herbal salad dressing or dip mix, just add mayo and buttermilk (or milk plus lemon juice) for salad dressing, or add to yogurt cheese for dip! She has 3 new mixes – shortbread, ginger muffin, and wholegrain pancake. She also is introducing bread and butter pickles by the pint or the quart, and a jalapeno marinade with true authority.

Soy Candle Cottage has 7 new types of candles available this month.

The Woodchuck Chop has lots of new products this month, including a “rustic manual calendar”, and a stone drum. If an Oklahoma stone could sing. . . would it do polka music during Oktoberfest? Would it take requests? Only the stones know. . .

Cattletracks has a new special this month – “Set the SAGE for OKTOBERFEST” – one of their signature organic roasts AND a family recipe for “sage pot roast”. Truly a FEST for Oktober.

Kim Barker at Walnut Creek Farms is now offering his signature all grass fed ground beef in a bundle of 10, 1 lb packages for a discount. You save $4 over the individual package price. He also has hamburger patties for the first time in several months.

KSA Orchards is offering lamb chops this month at a great price. And they have lamb snack sticks in three flavors – spicy (Wooly hot), Original (Shepard’s Choice), and Mild (Cool Grazin). Be sure to specify in the customer comment box which flavor you want.

Since 1994, Valerie Mettry of Mother’s Catering has been making her famous Mediterranean Cheese Ball. It is a fully-blended cheese ball with complimentary flavors. Ingredients include Tillamook medium cheddar cheese, cream cheese, sundried tomatoes, roasted walnuts, and chives. Perfect for entertaining and snacking. She is introducing her stuffed grapeleaves, each individual grapeleaf is stuffed with a mixture of organic basmati rice, onions, olive oil, golden raisins, walnuts, fresh dill, cinnamon, sea salt, and pepper, and cooked in lemon juice. And she is bringing back her Garden Vegetable Soup, by the quart.

NOTES FROM PRODUCERS. . .

Several producers have asked me to point out some info about their products.

Tami Buss of Upper Red Fork/Country Raised Lamb is happy to announce that they are installing a small mill at their farm and will be milling flour for the Farm to School program here in Oklahoma, where local farmers sell food directly to school districts for use in school lunch programs. Although their farm is not certified organic, they do not use pesticides and herbicides on their farm. They have also developed a whole grain cookie mix, which is based on her grandmother’s recipe.

Honey Hill Farm reports that Cheevers restaurant has bought all of their signature fallow venison roasts for this season! They still have available the Sika tenderloins and venison loins. They have ground venison for chili, and summer sausage and jerky for healthy snacks. They are harvesting honey from their bees “even as we speak”, although they report that because of the extreme heat, the bees did not make comb honey, so they won’t have any honeycombs this year.

Stephanie Testa is featuring her Christmas cards this month, one has the simple message, “Peace on Earth”, so it is suitable for everybody for the holiday season. Her cards feature her original art and she prints them herself at her home workshop.

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WOW. And this tour de force of the new products and notes from producers doesn’t even cover a tenth of the 1,295 products available this month through the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. Truly the materials of much FESTING is available on this OKTOBERFEST order (OY! OY! OY!)

Please note that due to the extended order period, some products may be added as the order continues. It is hard for vegetable producers to peer into the future and know with certainty what will be available so far in advance. I will send emails as new products are added or old products reintroduced.

THANKS to everybody for your participation.

Wir Werden Bon Apetitin!

Bob Waldrop, president
Oklahoma Food Cooperative