Kelby Carr

This is precisely a main reason, a culmination, of why I am doing my Sustainable Kitchen Project. It’s just for amazing experiences like this. Just yesterday, I glanced over towards my garden. I noticed a flash of red. Not green, and not the even more likely brown. Red. It stopped me in my tracks.

Tomatoes. Tomatoes that I grew on my own. This may not sound amazing, but considering my brown thumb, this is nothing short of miraculous.

It’s funny the simple pleasures for a foodie mom like myself, too. It’s amazing that I found the time to grow these tomatoes, and it’s amazing they grew. It’s amazing that I could walk over and pick four fire engine red tomatoes from my own garden.

I looked at my special little tomatoes and pondered what to do with them. There really wasn’t enough to make something for the whole family. Each tomato was maybe one to two inches around. I could smell the tomato awesomeness just oozing from them. I also have so much basil growing, I don’t even know what to do with it. So it clicked. It was time to make bruschetta. Brilliant.

I should also specify that I decide to make brushetta for me, and just for me, and not for anyone else. It isn’t very often a mom can do something completely and utterly selfish. We’re constantly thinking of the kids first. But I had this gift, and it was just enough for one.

I waited for the kids to go down for nap. Then I did it. I diced the tomatoes. I grabbed a couple of the little dices just to get a pure taste of the tomatoes. It was so amazing, I had to take a sample to my husband. I had to bug him to try it (”This is what home grown tomatoes taste like, honey!”), and even he (the lover of all things pizza and burger) was impressed with the flavor.

I chopped some basil, then let them marinate in some organic extra virgin olive oil. I then tossed in some crumbled feta cheese and sprinkled a little sea salt, and served it over toasts.

Then I sat back, relaxed, and tasted. Unbelievable.

So even though it took hours of effort, and it cost money for my raised bed, and I had to encounter all sorts of Homeric-like challenges (well, bugs, dirt and the threat of frost), it was all worth it.

This is the ultimate local food. Forget farm to table, this is yard to table. Delicious!

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Buying local food is actually a big part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project, even if it isn’t entirely related to a self-sustaining kitchen. Still, buying produce and food products from my neighbors instead of those that traveled 1,500 miles is, I believe, is in the spirit of my project.

When we lived in Nice, France, we shopped at a local market almost every day. In fact, we didn’t even own a car there. That meant the most we could ever buy is what we could carry (and not much since we had a 1-year-old with us). We would usually hit the big Cours Selaya Flower Market and buy just enough produce to last a couple days.

We couldn’t even do the big, mondo, semi-ridiculous grocery store expedition where you load up on a month’s supply of things that are frozen, boxed, canned, jarred and came from the other side of the globe.

We also always had the best local food, because in France it was so easy to do so. Want bread? Go to the bakery around the corner. Sweet tooth? Hit a local pastry shop or chocolaterie. Meat comes from the local butcher, and cheese from one of the amazing, divine corner cheese shops.

So this morning wasn’t quite at that level, of course. I’m not in France anymore. But I am in Asheville, and food was a major reason I wanted to move here (a.k.a. Foodtopia) when we returned from France and found ourselves unhappy in Northwest Indiana near Chicago (too flat, and way too cold).

We went to the new Asheville City Market. It’s kind of interesting they even need another market (we have like 45 in the region), but it actually is the only one conveniently located downtown. And it seems to have attracted many vendors. There was a mix of produce, plants, cheeses, meats, local trout, fresh baked breads and pastries, and local-made jams and jellies. In a word, it’s divine. And it was a little like being back in the South of France.

And it’s another check off of my Sustainable Kitchen Project although this, like everything on the list, is something I want to do regularly (at least weekly). We’ll see if I can stick to that.

We made some great purchases, and I spent about $50. I got some grass-fed pastured lamb and pork from Hickory Nut Gap Farm, and some unbelievably delicious goat cheese from Spinning Spider Creamery (the hardest decision of the day, as I wanted pretty much every variety she had). In fact, I’m nibbling on crackers topped with the Provence Chevre right now as I type.

We got some local lettuce (a cool and interesting speckled Romaine variety), plump asparagus, and apple butter.

The kids had a wonderful time and, in an almost unheard-of first, not a one had a melt-down. For morning snack, my husband, oldest daughter and I had chocolate croissants from a local baker, and the twins enjoyed these adorable star-shaped mini croissants filled with rhubarb and goat cheese.

Here are some pictures, including close-ups of my mouth-watering local food purchases:

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So to truly have a sustainable kitchen as part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project, I really need to be, like, producing some of my own food or something. I so love the idea of growing my own vegetables, fruit and herbs. There’s just one problem. I have the world’s blackest black thumb. So for me, starting an organic vegetable garden is a bit like my own version of the Odyssey. But I am pretty determined.

Also, over the years, the blackness of my thumb seems to be getting slightly less overbearing. It used to be, I would walk past a plant and it would die on sight. Then I could count on maybe 5 percent of plants in my presence to survive.

I keep trying. Plants keep giving their lives for the cause. I keep getting just a little bit better.

A big part of the problem is that planting and growing things requires a couple traits I just don’t have. One, you need to take time to study how to do it right. Umm, yeah. If I buy something and I can’t figure it out without consulting the instructions, it’s going back to the store. (Actually, it’s going to sit on a shelf forever because who the hell has time to return things? Seriously). It also takes following directions very closely. Oh, and a third trait. It takes patience.

Well, I’m more a wing it, figure it out, and eyeball it type of person.

Yet the miraculous has happened. My husband got involved. See he’s good at all those icky things like concentration. (Shudder). He set up a cool shelf system with lights (he even said something about the lights being the right something or other. I don’t know. I lost interest).

Anyway, it worked. I have so many seedlings I don’t know what to do with them.

So it was time to start my garden. I went outside with shovel in hand to dig me up a garden. I figured that would take, say, 5 minutes of digging and ta-da, a garden plot. I inserted shovel into grass. And pushed. Um, it didn’t even go into the ground. WTF? Raised bed. That was my decision.

So thus started the Google search. One of my Type-A Mom editors had this perfect article for me on her About.com Organic Gardening site, “ How to Make a Raised Bed Garden.”

I’ll save you the grueling details, but we decided to use stones around the edges and created this nice-looking, fine-looking, totally-kick-ass raised organic vegetable garden (that cost about $100 for rocks and organic dirt. yep.):

We planted a couple of early girl tomatoes that came in these cool biodegradable pots that you can plant right with the tomato:

And check this out! We already have the tiniest, cutest little tomatoes. How freakin’ adorable are these? Yeah, you will probably have to squint:

Now, the next problem. What the hell do I do with all these other veggie seedlings? Seriously?

I’m thinking I need, oh, about 10 more raised beds. Anyone care to send a donation to my Paypal account? I’m kidding. Sort of.

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One of the first things I’ve done as part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project is to pull out, dust off, clean and actually use this very cool, very nice juicer I received as a gift years ago. Yes, years ago. I’ve thought many times how cool it would be to make juice. I have three kids and two adults, and we consume a lot of juice (even with me diluting the kids’ juices).

So, I was armed with a big bag of organic oranges, and this cool new-old kitchen gadget. I was pretty optimistic about the results. Here’s how it all went down:

It started with a bag of oranges…

Then lots and lots and lots of cutting, deseeding, etc. to get the good orange juiciness pieces…

Then stuffing lots of orange juice pieces into the electric juicer. It’s a little time-consuming, but definitely easy…

I’m feeling pretty good. It looks good, it smells good. I’m done. That wasn’t so tough. Now, for the reward for all this time, expense and effort…

Umm…. WTF? Seriously? All that work for 12 ounces of juice? A whole BAG of oranges results in 12 ounces? What a rip! And now look at all this stuff I have to clean up…

In all fairness, that 12 ounces of orange juice tasted very fresh (although a little bitter). But I couldn’t help thinking Tropicana really should start charging more for a carton of OJ. If you figure an hourly rate at $50, or even $25, I spent a good hour between preparation, juicing and clean-up. Plus, the expense of the whole bag of oranges (I think it was around $3).

Still, I am not ready to give up on juicing. But the stars are no longer in my eyes. I have a big book on juicing that came with my juicer. I might skim that or something. I also like the idea of making juices with multiple fruits and vegetables. I also think it probably makes sense to make a huge batch of juice at once to maximize the time spent, particularly cleaning all the little parts. I’ll keep you guys posted next time I play with my juicer to see if I get better return on investment.

Have any of you guys made your own juice? Did I do something wrong here? Let me know any tips you might have, or link to anything you’ve written on juicing!

Next in the Sustainable Kitchen Project, I’ll share some of the details (woes and wonders) of starting my first organic vegetable garden. Who knew creating a basic pile of dirt on a big 1-acre lot could be such a pain in the ass?

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When I decided to work at home most days, a major MAJOR factor was having more time to make good food for my family. I wanted to use more fresh ingredients, and make more things from scratch. Oh, in my mind, I would be the uber foodie mom, baking and creating and freezing and canning and doing various fun food things. I should totally have a sustainable kitchen.

In my kitchen, I have gadgets for making yogurt, juice, pasta, even sausage. I have a bread maker missing just one piece. Besides that, I have the knowledge (or the ability to Google and find out) to make any number of things from scratch. I have plenty of land to grow my own stuff, and I live in Asheville, NC where it is super easy to find cool locally grown produce.

Yet, my gadgets and cookbooks are gathering dust. I still hit the Super-Walmart so I can super consume. I spend $200-plus at least once a week on groceries. And I do still, sometimes (although definitely less and less often as I am at home more), give my children processed, packaged crap. OK, I said it. I may be a foodie mom, but I am a real mom. I am buying things in extra packaging for extra money and being totally non-green when I could just make and store things at home. Criticize away, if you must.

I blame life and having lots of work and having three kids and all of that. But when my twins were babies, I was working full-time and making homemade baby food and pumping milk for them to have at daycare. It wasn’t easy, and I was pretty much psychotically exhausted. But it should be even easier now, much easier. So I clearly CAN do it.

So I’ve decided I will create this public Sustainable Kitchen Project as a way to motivate myself, to keep myself honest, to connect with other moms who want a more self-sustaining kitchen, and to track my progress. I’ve already started in a few ways, and I’ll post about these very soon. For example, we are starting an organic vegetable garden. Here is a lettuce seedling I’ve started:

And I made orange juice this week:

Here are just some of the things I want to do as part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project. Hey, are there some I am not thinking to list? Let me know…

• Grow herbs, vegetables and fruit
• Make juices, teas and sodas
• Make yogurt
• Make pasta
• Bake breads
• Start a compost
• Buy more local produce and products
• Learn to preserve items when they are local and fresh with freezing, canning, etc.
• Make jams and other condiments
• Make butter
• Make beer and wine
• Make cheese (can that be done at home? that would be coool!)

I know I’m forgetting some. I’ll also keep track of the grocery bill, and any other side effects and impacts of the project.

Wish me luck with my self-sustaining kitchen!

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