'Localvore' Chef Gives Up Lemon Juice in Cooking...

What is a 'Localvore'?
A relatively new term for those who are focused on eating all or mostly local food.  It really makes one give pause and think about just how much of the food we eat comes from far away.  Granted, it is easier in some parts of the country than others to eat this way, but once you start researching your area and talking to small local farmers you might be surprised at how much is there that you just never knew about.  It takes some digging and research, but its a whole new adventure.  This mode of thinking is somewhat against the grain for a classically-trained chef.  You are taught to seek rare and imported ingredients to satisfy the desire for all things exotic.  The more I have traveled though, the more I find myself searching out a whole new adventure by only buying what is available locally, in any given destination to cook with.  I have learned an incredible amount about regional cuisines in this manner, so I try to have access to a kitchen when I do travel.

Anyone Know Where I Can Buy Some Oregon Lemons?
Just kidding.  We've actually talked about keeping a dwarf lemon in our greenhouse and it might become a reality one day, but in the meantime I have come up with a local substitute that is almost better.  Green grape juice or verjus.  Let me explain.

Much of cooking is about balance and/or contrast.  Hot/sour; sweet/sour; etc.  Sour (acid) is a very important component in making food interesting and enjoyable whether its vinegar in your salad dressing or lemon in your tea, if its not there you miss it; a berry pie without a little tartness just isn't right.  This has always been the case throughout history and throughout all regions of the world.  Different regions will achieve the desire for sour in different ways however; some fermented food takes on a sour taste; for example, sweet milk becomes tangy yogurt.  It hasn't been until fairly recently that we can get lemon on demand no matter how far away those citrus trees grow.  In the past, only the very wealthy could afford such luxuries as imported food.

In France I noticed that they use sour grape juice in place of vinegar and lemon in various preparations. When I am referring to green grape juice, I mean green as in unripe, not necessarily the color.  Grapes in vineyards are thinned once the clusters are formed to give the plant a chance to put all of its energy into less, better quality fruit.  Many times the unripe fruit is just dropped to the ground and left to go back to the earth where it will act as fertilizer, but not everywhere.  Savvy winemakers will squeeze the juice and make a few lucky cooks very happy with the results.  The cool thing is, you can do the same thing, you just need access to some unripe grapes.

The first time I had verjus I marveled at how delicious it was and I have been on a bit of a crusade to get people around here to begin to produce it, since we are surrounded by vineyards here in the Willamette Valley.  It can be bottled like any fruit juice and used anywhere you would use vinegar or lemon.  It even makes a wonderful beverage watered down (it is very potent in its natural strength) and sweetened a little with either honey or cane sugar; think lemonade.  I have concocted a beverage with our local berry the Marionberry which is a type of blackberry, verjus and just a little wild blackberry honey; absolutely fantastic and good for you!

What Kind of Grapes Work Best?
It doesn't really matter.  Typically, verjus is made from wine grapes because there are so many of them.  Like tomatoes or any other berry, all grapes start out green and only take on their color when they are nearing ripeness.  So even Pinot Noir verjus will be green, even though the grape is red when it is ripe.
We have two concord grapes in our backyard that work just great.  I just run them through my food mill and viola!  Verjus.  The main important thing is that they are squeezed when they are unripe, which makes them tart (you also want to wait long enough that there is a little juice in them).

My favorite gardening beverage; green tea with honey and verjus.  The grapes came from the concord vine in the background.  Hopefully next year the honey will be from the backyard too!

Certain things won't ever be able to be local like the tea I enjoy, but I feel a little better sweetening it with some local honey and then giving it a little pizzazz with verjus squeezed from my grapes.  This year I plan to can some and put it away in our food storage.  A local winemaker had made some and put it in one of those vacuum pump boxes lined with Mylar and it kept beautifully for over a year, but now its gone.

My antique Foley food mill works great to juice the grapes.  An electric juice machine would work too; the kind you use
for carrots though, not a citrus juicer.

So, now you know you have a use for your grapes, long before you thought you did.  The acid strength is very comparable volume-wise to lemon juice.  In other words, substitute one teaspoon of lemon juice for one teaspoon of verjus.  Enjoy!


Now I just have to convince someone to start making grape seed oil around here...