| The lemons, in this case, came from a nearby tree, and the owner had more lemons than she could ever use herself. My roommate picked them, and then made lemonade, and more lemonade, and more lemonade, and two large batches of lemon marmalade... and still had lemons leftover. I used the last of the lemons to make 9 half-pints of lemon marmalade yesterday.
My dirty little secret is: I don't really like the lemon marmalade. My roommate does. My problem is the lemons. I don't know what variety of lemons they are, but they have an unpleasant (to me, and maybe only me) flavor. But, if other people like the marmalade - great! I'd love to trade it to them for, well, just about anything. I was really hoping to come home from the food swap piled up with tomato sauce and salsa.
The attendance at this first food swap was low, but I do hope they continue. And I hope next time we find a new location that isn't a bar. Here's what was up for grabs this time around:
Candied citrus peel
Meat tomato sauce
Curry chicken empanadas
The chicken curry, for tasting
Strawberry jam
What jumped out to me was how wonderful the presentation was for each item. Maybe next time I would need to step up my game a bit!
Everyone got busy meeting one another and tasting each item. My marmalade got a generally positive response, and I traded jars of it for candied citrus peel and strawberry orange jam. My ability to make trades was limited by my vegetarianism. The folks who brought meat dishes said next time they'd have veg versions too. (My plan for next time is bringing fresh eggs... let the chickens do the work instead of me!)
For a first time effort, I think it was a success and a lot of fun. But, in addition to the small attendance, I have a few other concerns. I was worried that people would want to know that my lemon marmalade wasn't organic (I am pretty sure that fertilizer was used on the trees, although I don't think any pesticides were used). But I am not sure that everyone who showed up was in the organic crowd. I didn't ask anyone about it, but I do care about it. I'd rather not bring home a bunch of food that was grown with pesticides.
Also, I'm not sure that the folks who had canned items used a canner and sealed their jars the way I did. And, I mean, that's fine... but it's an important detail to share with folks, so that you don't give a jar of freshly made but not sealed and sterile jam to someone who will leave it on the pantry shelf for six months before eating it.
My other issue was with the tomato sauce. This is a huge bummer that I have to be such a Debbie downer because the sauce was extremely delicious (I tasted it before I realized it wasn't veg), and the couple who brought it couldn't have been nicer. I asked where the tomatoes came from (a problem for me when making tomato sauce because the tomatoes are usually too expensive at farmers' markets so I have to prowl the markets all summer until I can get 45 lbs of nearly-rotten (but not rotten) tomatoes for $1/lb to make enough sauce to last all year). In this case, the tomatoes came from a can. With a BPA lining. Which is the whole reason why I got into the business of making my own tomato sauce in the first place - so I could AVOID tomatoes laced with BPA.
All of my sympathy is with the couple who brought the sauce because a) I know how hard it is to get enough tomatoes at a good enough price to make sauce b) BPA should be illegal and it shouldn't be our individual responsibility to know about every single toxic thing that corporations legally put in our food and c) it's not as if canned tomatoes come with labels that tell you there's BPA in there. I deal with food issues full time as my career, so I know about it; most people don't. They do something else full time to make a living and then have to feed themselves in the time they have leftover. And using some of that scarce and valuable free time to make tomato sauce is commendable. And it's a scandal that some asshole corporation put BPA in the tomato can lining and then lobbied Congress to keep it legal. |
