Basic barbecue
In my continuing series of small, curious steps backward, yesterday, I acted impulsively on an idea that’d come to me a couple of days earlier. Instead of the usual junk food “treat” that’s become a Saturday afternoon ritual on the way back from the farmers’ market , we stopped in at a local, independent butcher and bought small portions of beef, pork, chicken and four types of sausage, and at the mega-hardware store, a cheap, old style barbecue ($20CDN). Back at the farm, the meat got skewered, along with farm onions, mostly hot peppers, and three types of zucchini—a prepared rub on the meat, salt, pepper and olive oil on the veggies—and then it was over the coals instead of the usual propane treatment. There was enough to do it all over again late this morning for…brunch, to feed four. It may be a little silly, enjoying every turn to the seemingly simpler, like doing away with fast food and propane tanks in favor of a marginally more basic cookery, but it feels…good. I think this is tiny farming-induced behavior. Demand simplicity!!
Somewhat related posts: • Chickens just wanna eat… • A simple (chicken!) sandwich • Yellow… • Chickens arrive! • Pulling onions
Steve Mudge said,
October 2, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
Earlier this year we had to unfortunately cut down the Pecan tree in our backyard–one, it was leaning mostly over into the neighbor’s yard, and two–we had to create more light for a vegie garden. But we managed to save every scrap of the tree–the larger trunks were milled into planks for a counter and cabinets and are now drying; the rest is being used for BBQing and smoking. So we’ve managed to even step further back into the simplicity by not having to even buy charcoal–which is significant since I BBQ all the time…only thing is my wife is starting to tire of Pecan wood smoke flavoring on everything(such a travail, eh?)–gonna have to trade with somebody for some Oak or Mesquite!
Sara said,
October 3, 2007 @ 6:55 am
Your bbq food looks fantastic. sara from farmingfriends
Andrea said,
October 3, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
Aaaaahhhhh! Looks much more salubrious than McDonalds, non?! Roddy’s a staunch supporter of the coal BBQ - “you’re not barbequing if you’re using propane!!” If you get around to watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage’ series you’ll be curing your own meat in no time!