One thing I’ve discovered with Mesclun mixes is that some of the varieties frequently outcompete the other varieties; I’ve run into this with some Botanical Interest Sassy Salad Mesclun (2005 seed) that I started in my coldframe early this spring… the mustard greens got themselves established before the other seeds.  It is also probably a case of the other seeds not storing as well.  Another issue I’ve run into with mixes is trying to identify what is a seedling and what is a weed…  Botanical Interest’s lovely illustration of full sized specimens on the seed packet helps, but it’s still challenging.  I may start to limit myself to planting varieties seperately and mixing them as they are cut.

I also lucked out and one of my neighbors shared some morels she had found.  I wasn’t in the mood to dig out the breadcrumbs, flour, eggs, milk, so when I went looking for something to pair up with the morels, those abundant mustard greens came to mind.  

This was a simple experimental dish: melt some butter, add the morels (sliced in half, submerged in water, rinsed well and drained) and saute them for 3-4 minutes.  As the morels neared completion, I added about a quarter cup of chopped mustard greens and then a little sherry cooking wine and sea salt.  I ended up with morels in a light sauce with a nice touch of spicy greens. Yum. 

Hey and wouldn’t that make a nice picture — that’s how the current web site header photograph came to be.

This web site is an attempt to bring together a variety of my passions: lessening my impact on our Earth, gardening, cooking, photography, web development, teaching, learning, sharing, and entrepreneurism.

I hope this will be a resource where you can:

• Find out about Iowa farmers and purchase from them
• Discover restaurants that serve seasonal, locally produced food
• Find seasonal recipes
• Learn from my successes and failures growing food as locally as it can get (our backyard)

Check back soon for posts on these subjects: 

• Why Think Global Eat Local? What does it mean?
• Why start with a blog?
• Big plans, future phases

Contact me at brandon@thinkglobaleatlocal.com to be added to our email list to be notified of changes.  Subscribe to our our RSS feed which will be coming soon.

Thanks for visiting!