In the world of the locavore, one who eats food within a small footprint (100 miles, give or take) of one's home, counting becomes compulsive. Like a prairie woman feeding her family on a scratch farm in Wyoming or the protagonist of Franny and Zooey enumerating the entire contents of the Glass family medicine cabinet, a locavore must be acutely aware of what is in her larder.
Local food is scarce this time of year and must be planned for, coddled. After a week or so of the diet, privation turns to exaltation because of weight loss and renewed energy. The reason Frenchwomen stay thin is not because they smoke, it's because of their diets: less food, better quality. The quality of our food, right out of the dirt, is high, while the collateral damage of factory farming makes the U.S. a nation that is so fat that when it gets on a scale at Coney Island, the fortune reads, "Hey, hey, one at a time."
It's been 50 days since I became a locavore, and these are my sins: 1) coffee, 2) sugar, 3) cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil, 4) red wine, white wine… you get the idea. But for the most part, with the exception of restaurant meals and family events, a purely local diet is easy to follow. The inventory of food that I have hoarded for the next four months includes four potatoes, one Delecta squash, one Easter Island squash, a braid of garlic (24 medium-sized cloves), three butternut squashes, three red onions, celeriac (celery root), 45 pounds of frozen goat meat, six bags of frozen blueberries and raspberries, three large bags of frozen corn and lots of apples.
All 10 jars of canned plum tomatoes have been polished off, forcing me to stretch one can of paste. It's worth it. Without my last jar of tomatoes riding shotgun as a marinara, our Christmas zuppa de pesce would have been about as local as Sardinian sardines.
If it doesn't sound like much food, that's because it's not. Since I don't have a root cellar or silo in Holyoke, where I live, my winter farm share in Whately is a godsend. What can you eat in winter? Dairy, meat, chicken and, if you've access to a farm share, storage crops. Dave "Action" Jackson, the proprietor of the winter share farm Enterprise Produce in Whately, is hellbent on getting every potato, onion, leek, cabbage, apple and hydroponic Boston lettuce to his barn for local consumption.
There are other sources of local "storage crops" that aren't found at supermarkets.? Bashista, an orchard, is only nine miles from Holyoke and offers much of what Enterprise does, as do some of the smaller local grocery stores that carry potatoes, onions, squash and apples.
The big star of winter in the world of root veggies is celeriac. Shaped like a brain without the benefit of blood, this vegetable has a unique nutty flavor and very little starch. It is perfect for a gratin layered with Swiss or cheddar cheese, aged chevre, cream and a simple tomato sauce. Potato-celeriac gratin has graced bistro chalkboards for centuries. In answer to the question "Who was it who picked up a celeriac and decided to eat it?" the answer is, the French.
Potato-Celeriac Gratin
Locavore footprint: 25
miles (sans nutmeg)
2 to 2 1/2 lbs. baking
potatoes
1 small to medium
celeriac (celery root)
4 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced.
3 garlic cloves, sliced paper-thin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 cups grated Swiss or cheddar cheese (Granville, Smith and Sons)
1/2 cup aged goat cheese (Hillman)
7 oz. local cream (Flavors or Mapleline)
Basil
Nutmeg: 3 scrapes
Cider vinegar
Heat the oven to 375-degrees. Put the potatoes in a pot of salted boiling water with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (to avoid discoloration) and boil for 15 minutes until soft.
While the potatoes are cooking, peel and slice the celeriac. Put it in a separate pot of salted boiling water and boil for 3 minutes until slightly translucent. Drain, keeping some of the liquid, and set aside.
When the potatoes are cooked, take them out and rinse them under cold water. Let them cool and slice them.
In a small pot, heat oil. Fry the garlic for 10 seconds or so until it is fragrant and translucent.
Add the tomatoes and several diced leaves of basil. Lower to a simmer; cover and cook for 15 minutes. The tomatoes should become a sauce.
Add half a cup of celeriac juice or cooking water to tomato sauce to thin it if necessary, then add the cream and several scrapes of whole nutmeg. Stir.
Butter a medium-sized gratin dish. Place a layer of sliced potatoes on the bottom, then a layer of celeriac slices. Add a layer of tomato sauce and a layer of cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Repeat the layering, finishing with aged goat cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve piping hot with a salad of baby Boston lettuce and apple vinaigrette.
At the Market
Local celeriac (looks like a brain without the blood) can be had at Enterprise Farms in Whately, which now has a winter market as well as a winter CSA, and at the River Valley Market Co-Op in Northampton. Enterprise supplies River Valley, which can supply you, and membership to either establishment is not required.
Restaurant Buzz
Andy Sussman, owner of the restaurant Butternuts in Hadley, takes care of his people. He is loyal to local farms even in winter, and continues to provide restaurant food for people who risk life and limb going out to eat. Being a locavore is one thing but having to avoid bread altogether is extremely tricky. Butternuts' menu is careful to provide food for celiac disease sufferers, people who cannot tolerate gluten in their diets. Celiac disease is both a disease of malabsorption—meaning nutrients are not absorbed properly—and an abnormal immune reaction to gluten.
There is very little food that does not contain gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. Gluten is what makes bread rise, and it makes digestive systems fall, but celiacs have a friend in Sussman. On January 21, Butternuts will offer a "gluten-free" feast to a celiacs' support group. If this food is any indication of how support groups eat, it might be one to sit in on. The menu features prawns New England, New York strip steak, scallops Provencal, salmon Florentine, raspberry chicken breast and duck breast with fresh fruit chutney, not to mention potatoes from Hadley.
Correction: In the column for January 1 ("Locavore Toasts the New Year"), the restaurant serving Bellini should have been Blue Heron of Sunderland, not Hope and Olive."
