Kenne Dallefeld tilled the community garden plot in late May

If you are interested in supporting the community garden but don’t have the time or inclination to garden a plot yourself you may want to consider a cash donation that would sponsor a garden plot by someone else.

Rob Porter and nnn unload wood chips for pathways at the community garden

Garden plots ready for planting

Click here to see all of the photos of the community garden on University Drive.

Welcome!

Hello All!  Welcome to another fabulous season of the Macomb Farmers Market!  I know that I have been anticipating the first market day for months and can’t wait to browse the stands filled with wholesome foods amidst Macomb’s historic town square. The Macomb Farmer’s Market is open from 7 am until 1 pm Thursday and Saturday.  I hope that you are as excited as I am! Be sure to stop by the FIG Children’s Tent between 9am and 11am on Saturday. Here, kids can take home sprouting peanuts. During the season, if there is anything that you’d like to see in this newsletter, or any feedback you’d like to give, please don’t hesitate to email em.schoenfelder@gmail.com. Happy Shopping!

Spring Greens with Hot Bacon Dressing

Serves 4

-1/2 lb. smoked bacon

-12 c. mixed spring greens, washed and towel dried
-1/3 c. water
-1/3 c. cider vinegar
-1/4 c. brown sugar
-1 ½ t. freshly ground black pepper
-Salt
-2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

Slowly fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy.  Drain, reserving 1/3 c. of the bacon fat.  Crumble the bacon and set aside.  Combine the bacon fat, water, vinegar and brown sugar in the skillet and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Simmer over medium heat until boiling.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.  Pour the hot dressing over the greens and toss well.  Season with salt and pepper.  Garnish with egg slices.

A Few Reasons to Shop at the Market

1.) Local food is better for you! Produce contains the most nutrients when it is picked ripe and eaten shortly after harvesting. Many of the fruits and veggies seen in stores were picked green and shipped for thousands of miles before even reaching the shelves. Farmers Market produce is picked at the peak of freshness, often only a few hours before it is purchased by the consumer.

2.) Farmers Markets build community relationships. Shopping at the market allows you to get to know farmers and other customers, strengthening social bonds, and building relationships of trust between consumers and producers. There are always new and old friends to be found on market days.

3.) Buying locally builds the economy. Every penny spent at the farmers market stays in the community, helping local farmers and businesses, as well as being reinvested into the local economy.  In this way, the impact of every local dollar grows exponentially.

Join FIG’s E-Locavore News email list:

farmersmarket-subscribe@macombfig.org

Write and tell us what you think about this newsletter at: em.schoenfelder@gmail.com



Earth Day Fair 2010 – Celebration of the Prairie
Saturday, April 24th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
At Macomb Junior-Senior High School Commons
1525 S. Johnson Street

Sponsored by: Environmentally Concerned Citizens, Western Prairie Audubon Society, Macomb High School Ecology Club, Food Initiatives Group, Macomb Beautiful, LaMoine River Ecosystem Partnership

9:00 Fair Begins!
10:00 Prairie Potting– Seed Textures, Types, and Strategies
Table Activity with Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis and Audubon Society

11:00 Raptors 101: Show with Live Birds (barn owl, peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture)– Jacques Nuzzo & Jane Seitz, Illinois Raptor Center Gym

12:00 Native American Games — Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis

1:00 Storytelling – Prairie Fire Performance – Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis
Auditorium

2:00 Raptors 101: Show with Live Birds (barn owl, peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, turkey )– Jacques Nuzzo & Jane Seitz, Illinois Raptor Center Gym

3:00 Climate Change Effects on Midwest, Dr. Redina Herman (in classroom)

Lunch/Snacks: Wholesome foods offered by Cornucopia, a natural food store in Galesburg

A Glance at the Commons….

WIU: Biology Department, Institute for Environmental Studies, others
The Nature Quilt Project (painting squares for the prairie quilt)
Sponsor tables – ECC, WPAS, FIG

Plus…
A wide diversity of green vendors and organizations displaying information, offering activities, and selling products! Free mulch from Macomb City tree cutting.
All events are free and handicapped accessible.

Dr. Heather McIlvaine-Newsad and students plan their garden.

The students in Mrs. Standley’s and Miss Hentzel’s third grade classes and Mrs. Streit’s first grade class all got to taste carrots and lettuce, mix soil, and plant seeds in container gardens constructed from kiddie-sized plastic swimming pools.  FIG provided funds for the pools, seeds and watering cans.

FIG Chair Dan Barclay mixes soil with the students.

Dr. Gruver provided the soil, seeds, and lettuce starts.

The students and Dr. Gruver prepare the garden for planting.

Dr. McIlvaine-Newsad provided seeds, snack carrots and lettuce.

Everyone wants seeds!

The students had a lot of fun and will now get to learn something about what it takes to keep a garden growing.  The lettuce, radishes and flowers are all sprouted and thriving.  The students will be able to harvest some of those crops before school is out in early June.  The carrots are up as well, but they will not be ready to harvest until mid-summer.

Dr. Holly Stovall of WIU’s Women’s Studies Department and Food Initiatives Board member will make a presentation at noon, Thursday, February 18, entitled, “In the Kitchen With the Local Foods Movement: A 21^st Century Feminist Theory of Cooking.” The location will be room 180 of the Malpass Library.  The Western Organization for Women (WOW) is sponsoring the talk.  Bring your lunch!

Winter Supper guests enjoy great local food

Great food was available (recipes below) and several information tables informed people about community gardening, growing sprouts, and FIG.

Karen Peitzmeier prepares her sprout-growing display

Students from one of Dr. Heather McIlvain-Newsad’s WIU anthropology classes greeted arriving guests, bussed tables and otherwise kept everyone comfortable.  The Macomb First Presbyterian Church hosted the event and provided a wonderful venue with plenty of comfortable seating and a spacious, modern kitchen in which to work.

Great cooks in a great kitchen!

The FIG Winter Community Supper planning team of Holly Stovall, Jamie Lane, Lisa Gruver, and Jan Welch did a terrific job putting the event together.  Local NPR station WIUM interviewed Holly Stovall at the supper and you can listen to the interview here.

Local producers Ann Runner, Kenne and Debbie Dallefeld, and others provided the food for the event from their farms in the area.  One of the goals of the event was to keep food dollars in the community and spur the local economy by buying local food.  The McDonough County Voice newspaper covered the event and helped spread the word about the availability of local food in their January 27 article. Many FIG members arrived at the kitchen at 9:00am to begin preparing the meal.  Everyone had a great time.  You can view more photos of the event that were taken by FIG memeber and WIU faculty member Dr. Joel Gruver by clicking here.

Here are recipes that were used at the supper and a list of the local producers who supplied the food.

Chili
Serves 8 or more

1# local hamburger (ours was raised by West Prairie Beef – the Dallefelds)
1 large onion chopped
1 green or red pepper chopped
1 bulb of garlic minced
1 quart of tomatoes
1# dried red beans
1# black beans
1 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp chili powder
sea salt to taste

Rinse, drain, soak and cook beans as directed. Chop onions, peppers, garlic. Cook hamburger, drain, then add onions peppers, and garlic. After beans are fully cooked, add tomatoes, hamburger mixture, cumin, chili powder and salt. Let simmer.
NOTE: Do not add the tomatoes to the beans until they are fully cooked. May add a can of corn and a jar of salsa.

Italian Chickpea Soup
Serves 8

4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth( or cooking water from sweet potatoes)
2 cups water
1 med. onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 small bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper(more of less to taste)
2 16oz cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 large sweet potatoes,peeled and cut in 1/2 inch cubes(may substitute winter squash)
1 stalk celery diced
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Bring broth, onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme oregano, cayenne pepper and 2 cups water to a boil in a large pot over medium heat. Simmer 5 minutes. Add chickpeas, sweet potatoes, celery and mustard and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft.
Mash with a potato masher (chickpeas will remain mostly whole) Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with a sprig of parsley.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
3-4# chicken, preferably locally raised (ours was raised by Ann Runner)
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 bay leaf
1 stalk of celery chopped
1 carrot sliced
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1# egg noodles, preferably home made and whole wheat if possible
pepper to taste
Optional:1/2 tsp dried sage or 3 fresh leaves from garden
1 tsp dried rosemary or fresh sprig from garden

Put everything but the pepper in a large soup pot and cover with one to two inches of water. Bring to a boil. At this point you can skim off foam from the top, but this stop can be omitted. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2-5 hours, depending on how rich you like your broth. Alternatively, place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low from 8-16 hours.
Remove vegetables and chicken. Discard vegetables. Debone chicken and shred or chop chicken and return to pot. Add noodles an simmer 5 minutes or until cooked. All pepper to taste and salt if necessary.

Tips:If you simmer with the lid on, the broth witll be lighter, while if you simmer uncovered, the broth will be slightly reduced and the flavor more concentrated. If you cook it uncovered, monitor the water level.

When you place deboned chicken back in the pot, you can also add chopped vegetables like a carrot and celery. Use what’s in your garden or available from local producers.

Sweet Potato Soup with Green Beans and Cilantro
Serves 6-8

1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1-2 stalks celery chopped (optional)
1/2 cup peeled and seeded chopped tomato
1 clove garlic minced
Pinch of cinnamon or ground cumin
6 cups water or vegetable broth
4 white sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed(approx 4 cups)
1-2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro or parsley
1/2# fresh green beans, rinsed and cut into 1″ pieces

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot Toss in the onions and celery an saute them until they are lightly golden.
Add the tomatoes and garlic, cinnamon or cumin; stir and cover. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and are married to the onions.
Pour in the wate and stir. Add the sweet potatoes and cover. Bring the soup to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook until the potatoes are very tender. Using a stick blender, puree the soup in the pot.
Return soup to a simmer and throw in half the cilantro with the green beans. Season with salt and pepper. When the green beans are just tender(about 10 minutes), turn off the heat. Serve the soup with the remaining cilantro as a garnish.

Apple Crisp
TOTAL TIME
1 hour
Ingredients
* 6 cups peeled, cored, sliced apples or ripe pears, 2 to 3 pounds
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or more to taste
* 1 or two lemons
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 5 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing the pan
* 3/4 cup oats
* 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans (optional, but if you omit nuts add 1/2 c oats)

Preparation
1.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Toss fruit with half the cinnamon with enough fresh lemon juice to coat apples, and spread it in a lightly buttered 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.
2.
Combine remaining cinnamon and sugar in container of a food processor with butter, oats and nuts; pulse a few times, just until ingredients are combined. (Do not purée.) To mix ingredients by hand, soften butter slightly, toss together dry ingredients and work butter in with fingertips, a pastry blender or a fork.
3.
Spread topping over apples, and bake about 40 minutes, until topping is browned and apples are tender. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

YIELD
6 to 8 servings

Our Food Sources for this Supper:

Fresh Tomatoes……………………………..Flour Creek Farm in Augusta
Canned tomatoes……………………………Basil’s Harvest in Elmwood
Garlic…………………………………………….Prairie Circle Farm in Macomb
Noodles………………………………………….Treats for your Tulips in Macomb
Chicken and eggs…………………………….Hickory Grove Farm in Colchester
Onions and tomatoes……………………….Cory Crawford in Ursa
Apples…………………………………………..Camp Grove Orchard in Camp Grove
Apples…………………………………………..M&M&M Farm in LaHarpe
Garlic, Butternut squash…………………..Barefoot Gardens in Macomb
Sweet potatoes, carrots, oregano, wheat…WIU Organic Program
Beef (no hormones or antibiotics)………West Prairie Farm in Macomb
Honey…………………………………………….Frey’s Farm in Monmouth
Green Beans and potatoes…………………Amish Cooperative in Macomb
Colbyjack Cheese……………………………..Ropp’s Cheese in Normal