OLS: Happy Fourth potluck

This is cheating in the One Local Summer challenge slightly since it's not an entire meal. But, it's my entire contribution to a family potluck and it's the first time that I've aimed to make an entirely local contribution, so I want to honor that accomplishment.

First up, Sourdough Honey Whole Wheat Bread. I made some changes to the recipe based on hazy recollections of a loaf I made a couple of weeks ago, but I had to return that cookbook to the library and didn't copy the recipe so I couldn't repeat it exactly. So, I increased the sourdough starter to 1 cup, decreased the honey to a 1/4 cup, and decreased the yeast to 1 1/2 teaspoons. I also swapped out vegetable oil for butter to get another local ingredient in the bread. The only non-local ingredients were the salt and yeast. My starter, by the way, came from Alanna Kellogg of A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade. She got it from a woman (edit: Margie Kahn--see Alanna's comment for more details) who used to bake bread everyday when her eight children were growing up. My goal is to make an entirely local bread using no yeast, but I wasn't going to try that for the first time on a loaf destined to go to a party.

Contribution two, Cucumber Salad. I doubled the recipe using two of the cucumbers from our CSA box (one from last week!), a handful of the tiny onions we got in our box yesterday, and a large whole tomato from CJ's Produce at the Kirkwood Farmers Market. He's getting his tomatoes right now from an Amish farmer in Illinois who grows them hydroponically. I did not double the dressing because it seemed like plenty. I swapped out the sugar for honey to get in one more local ingredient. The only non-local ingredient was some of the vinegar -- I used one tablespoon of Blue Heron Orchard Habanero Apple Cider Vinegar and three tablespoons of non-local rice vinegar.

Unfortunately, we didn't coordinate our potluck very well and there ended up being three loaves of bread on the buffet. The other two were the kind that were buttered then re-heated in the oven and my more boring loaf didn't compete well. Oh well, it will make a fine bread for us this weekend. The cucumber salad was so popular that I brought home an empty container--that's always a mark of success!