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Category Archives: Farmer’s Markets

Lazy Hazy Summer Sundays

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I know we have twelve days until summer officially arrives, but today the temps were climbing a bit and it was a little humid. We headed out for a tradition.

Manassas Hamfest followed by lunch at a winery. The past three or four years we have done this. This year we headed off to Breaux after a morning at the show. The Manassas “ham” fest aka amateur radio flea market always makes me smile.

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After all, this is the place to get those replacement RCA electron tubes you need.

We then headed out to Breaux for a cellar club “pick up party”, where we get to see the new banquet hall and taste the cellar releases paired with food. Love the view from the new building.

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The older tasting rooms were at the bottom of the hill without this great view of the vineyards. They had live music today, and many people having lunch out listening to the music.

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The back half of the tented area is reserved for cellar club members. You can see in the picture above the haze over the mountains. Next week is Cajun fest out at the vineyards. With zydeco music, and even more space to spread out, the winery is gearing up for summer.

We brought our wines home, finished the grass cutting before it rains again, and had shrimp curry for dinner. That curry from Thai Spices, the new vendor at the Howard County markets. The matsamon curry.

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One of the “milder” curries they sell, this blend is packed with flavor. Yesterday we picked up a pound of steamed shrimp at Boarman’s. I peeled it and plopped it in the curry just before it was ready to serve. A little naan. A side salad. A riesling.

Great Sunday dinner.

hocofood@@@

Week Three in the Greens Fest

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CSA Week Three. Greens dominant again, as this cool wet spring has been perfect weather for salad greens and cooking greens. This is what we got.

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This is what this morning’s email said we were getting.

FULL VEGETABLE SHARE
1 bunch asparagus – Lancaster Farmacy
1 red leaf lettuce – Chiques Roc Organics
1 bunch dinosaur kale – Peaceful Valley Organics
1 head red butterhead lettuce – Millwood Springs Organics
1 bunch cilantro – Noble Herbs
1 bunch garlic scapes – Outback Farm
1 bunch garlic scapes – Friends Road Organics
1 head frisee – Meadow Valley Organics
1 bunch red scallions – Windy Hollow Organics
1 fennel bulb – Autumn Blend Organics
1 pack portobello caps – Mother Earth Organics

60% VEGETABLE SHARE
1 bunch green kale – Eagle View Organics
1 bunch red pearl onions – Liberty Branch Organics
1 head red butterhead lettuce – Millwood Springs Organics
1 bunch cilantro – Noble Herbs
1 bunch rainbow chard – Meadow Valley Organics
1 pack portobello caps – Mother Earth Organics
1 bunch garlic scapes – Sweetaire Farm

I included what the 60% share got this week so people can see the difference in the shares. The 60% share is a very good value if you like a bit of veggies, or are single or a couple who eats out often.

There was a bonus in our full share. A bunch of young red onions. I swapped the cilantro, putiing it in the swap box and having another member give me her scapes. Later I realized she gave me both bunches, so I owe the site hosts some goodie from my kitchen to reconcile the swap box.

They get to keep the contents of the swap box, and get a free share for being the host site. A bit of work, a few headaches from messed up shares by people taking the wrong things, but being a host is a good deal. If you like that swap box full of veggies noone else wants.

The scapes!

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I ended up with 27 of them in the four bunches. Cut up and ready to become pesto, along with the ones from Breezy Willow farm store.

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I will measure them out by the cupful and make pesto with them. Using slivered almonds, Parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper. Most will get frozen for the winter. A few small containers in the fridge to use on flatbreads and pastas.

I harvested mine today also. I got ten scapes. They will be grilled soon.

As for dinner tonight, I used up some of my older stuff. Made a huge salad to finish the salad greens. Larriland strawberries, cheese and Great Harvest croutons.

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Flatbreads. Two of them to slice. We will eat part of them and save the rest for lunch.

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The top one. Pesto and mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella bought at Breezy Willow Saturday. The lower one, herb roasted onions, Campari tomatoes, olives and scallion tops. Drizzled with olive oil. Baked at 400 degrees and finished under the broiler.

CSAs are wonderful sources of the freshest veggies around. Now, I just need to find room for the new lettuces.

hocofood@@@

It’s All Love Dove’s Fault …

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… or maybe TLVs, or Breezy Willow. Who knows? I just know I find something interesting at a market and then I get it from the CSA. Tomorrow the “anticipated” list on the Sandy Spring web site includes new potatoes, cilantro and garlic scapes (all of which I purchased in the past week).

I need to rearrange my schedule to hit the markets after I get my Thursday delivery.

TLV had a facebook notice about having new potatoes. There are no potatoes in our house at the moment and my husband expressed a wish for the little ones, steamed, then sprinkled with Parm, salt, pepper and butter.

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Baby reds. At the TLV stand at Miller library. I was there only to get potatoes, bread, curry and cheese. I already was lured into scapes at Breezy Willow last Saturday, as you can never have too many scapes.

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I really like this curry from Thai spices. Figured I would do chicken over the weekend, with curry sauce and whatever boatload of green things come tomorrow in the CSA box. This curry has the following in it:

coconut milk, potato, onion, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, bay leaves, turmeric, coriander, cumin, white pepper, cardamom, line juice and palm sugar.

Not things I normally keep on hand to make my own curry, and I like supporting the new business at the markets.

So, of course, cilantro at Love Dove is my downfall. It made me think — guacamole! Why, again, who knows? I buy cilantro, and then head off to Harris Teeter to get the few items I forgot last weekend, like limes, parchment paper, toilet paper.

I buy a few avocados to make the guacamole, and the limes to go with it.

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Big, ripe avocados. Perfect. Then, I spy another weakness.

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Meyer lemons. At the Turf Valley Harris Teeter. With all the lovely basil growing in my garden, it is certainly time for Meyer Lemon Basil Fizz (and this is all Michael Symon’s fault). It does have to be blamed on others. It’s not my fault I love to cook and entertain. Right?

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There will be Meyer Lemon Basil Fizz’s on the menu if it clears up and we have that cookout Saturday night. Simple to make. I don’t make mine as strong as his. One can San Pellegrino Aranciata and 4 oz. vodka for each two drinks. Juice of one large Meyer lemon muddled with half a dozen basil leaves and left to soak for at least 30 minutes to infuse. Mix it all with crushed ice. Two drinks. If you want it as strong as the original recipe, you have to double the vodka.

I picked up Aranciata at Costco to have around for just such discoveries.

But, it all comes back to that cilantro at the market. At least I resisted the scapes there today, because besides the Breezy Willow ones, I have twelve in the garden ready to harvest and tomorrow it looks like we are getting more.

There will be garlic scape pesto flatbread on the menu Saturday night too.

Love, love, love springtime! And, of course, the Howard County markets, farms and CSAs.

Planning any good cooking, grilling or cocktails with the local goodies?

hocofood@@@

Freezin’ Season …

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… is about to begin. With the strawberries, of course. And, those lovely garlic scapes.

We did a Costco run today to stock up on food saver bags, pine nuts, and other supplies. I am down to the end of the pesto. The rest will be used in a salad for a Conservancy planning meeting I am hosting next Monday here.

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This is the last bag of pesto cubes. With garlic scapes coming soon, I will be making pesto. I got pine nuts today and Parmesan. I freeze my pesto with the Parm in it. Some people don’t.

This year the whole strawberries that get flash frozen will be vacuum sealed in the food saver. So will the blackberries and blueberries later this summer.

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I also freeze whole tomatoes once they start producing. The vacuum sealer will help greatly with this task. Blanch, peel and squeeze out seeds. Put in bags. Slowly cook and put into sauces.

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These tomatoes were dumped in a pan. Very low heat. Covered in herbs and salt, pepper. Once they sweated off all that liquid, I picked them up and made sauce with them.

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There is nothing in a can or jar that comes close to this.

Check out Larriland all summer long. They have pick your own veggies and fruit, including tomatoes. With a few simple tools, and a chest freezer, you can eat wonderful meals without all that sodium and other garbage found in cans and jars.

Love those garlic scapes. And, any other greens to make pesto.

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Ask Love Dove at the market Friday when scapes are coming in.

hocofood@@@

Switching Gears

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Or, at least switching CSAs. This is the return to my original CSA, the one that got me hooked on CSAs. Sandy Spring using Lancaster Farm Fresh, a cooperative of Amish farms near Lancaster. This is the third time, too, for multiple CSA deliveries in the same week. Changing seasons or sites or CSAs will do that. In other words, I am really drowning in veggies.

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The reason I like this CSA is the experience. These are usually some very unique veggies, and always a huge amount. Two years ago, it freaked us out. We hadn’t changed our style of eating, cooking, freezing/canning and innovating. We gave lots of stuff away.

Now, I embrace the challenge. Particularly in the summer. In spring and fall I volunteer for lots of things. In winter, I recuperate and do house renovations and projects. In summer, I like figuring out what to do with cardoons or African horned melon. I still get my Breezy Willow fix at Glenwood. Those lovely eggs. Hit the farm store for mozzarella, yogurt, honey and other staples.

Some people may not handle this well. I think this year I am going to hang around the pick up site and see what goes into the swap box. How many adventurous people are out there in Columbia? This year they offered half shares for the first time. The half shares are more conventional than the full shares.

But, what did we get yesterday? TWELVE items. Glad they waited a week due to a slow spring. But, TWELVE?

Microgreens
Radishes
Red tatsoi
Gai-Lan Chinese broccoli
Collards
White scallions
Green Romaine
Butter lettuce
Asparagus
White Kohlrabi

Most boxes also had: Red scallions and spinach, but not me. You will notice in the picture all those lovely rhubarb stalks. Some of the boxes had rhubarb. I hung around and swapped for two. Why?

Rhubarb-B-Q Sauce is why.

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One of my local food challenge cyber friends made this. I love it. You will never buy BBQ sauce again if you learn to make your own.

As for the kohlrabi. Some people swapped. Most kept it. Now, the half share people were swapping mustard greens left and right. Our site host might be drowning in mustard greens today.

I love kohlrabi. Here is how I usually make it. Grilled with apple. Sprinkled with garam masala.

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Here’s to the start of another fabulous summer, full of fresh organic foods, from the CSA and the farmer’s markets.

hocofood@@@

This is

The End of the Road

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Week 12 Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA. I will miss my Wednesday trips to the farm. This CSA is such a great value, and you get so much for your money. For us maybe, sometimes too much, but still it is one awesome CSA.

Today:

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The biggest celery cabbage I have seen (and I took the smallest one there)
One humongous green romaine lettuce
Two pounds zucchini
Two sweet onions
One eggplant
One bunch asparagus
One bunch chard
One pound spinach (I picked the smallest ones to make salad)

Plus, either eggs or yogurt. I love Breezy Willow eggs and since this was the last week, I chose eggs.

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And, the bread. Honey Whole Wheat. There will be egg salad made. And, deviled eggs to take to a picnic. Pure heaven is homemade egg salad with a great loaf of bread.

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There is ratatouille in my future. I have some tomatoes in the freezer. We got onions, eggplant and zucchini. Sounds like the perfect fit.

Of course, for us, summer means farmers markets. And Glenwood is where I will continue to get Breezy Willow eggs and Great Harvest bread. Along with my TLV meats and Stone House baked goods.

Who needs grocery stores? Not us, well, except for staples like vinegar, sugar, beans and those other things we can’t find at markets.

hocofood@@@

In Glenwood It’s All Good

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Saturday farmer’s market in Glenwood. I missed the first week but made it out there today. The market has three new vendors. One, Misty Meadows, had ice cream, milk and cheese.

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Misty Meadows will be in Glenwood once a month, but for those craving fresh milk, they also come to the hospital market on Fridays. The other new vendor is Pleitez Produce, up from Montross VA. What is so great about having a VA farmer here is how early they get veggies in, compared to us. It is great because it lengthens the season. Today they had strawberries and rhubarb, and cucumbers and little greenhouse grown cherry tomatoes.

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In this picture, Pleitez is behind Great Harvest. Great Harvest had those incredible croutons there today. The ones I picked up at Breezy Willow with my CSA the other day. I got some rhubarb and large spring onions from Pleitez.

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The third new vendor is Thai Spices. I have already written about them from buying curries at Miller library market. They will be at all the markets.

I talked a while with RJ Caulder of Breezy Willow, and she said they are definitely adding more vendors to each market to make them more diverse. I see on the market web page that Elk Run Vineyard will be coming once a month in June July and August. Great to see the expansion of our markets.

I did a small amount of shopping. Cucumber plants to replace the ones the bunnies decided to sample.

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We need to expand the bunny fencing as the little ones are squeezing through the deer fence. Today was a three bunny day.

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Not very clear but then they were playing “Ring around the house” chasing each other all over the yard. Where is the fox when you need it? Seriously. They are getting into all my stuff even if they don’t like it. They chomp it off and leave it.

I got buttermilk cake to serve with berries and some of this lovely ice cream.

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Misty Meadows sells small cups and quarts of their ice cream. I also bought bacon from TLV. Not a bad morning. I have now been to two of the five to see what Howard County markets have this year. Check them out.

I think next week I may hit the hospital market if my husband likes this milk as well as Trickling Springs. I only got him a 12 ounce bottle today to try.

hocofood@@@

Use Up the CSA Dinner

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In honor of Food Revolution Day, which is today. I have collected quite a few of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks over the years, and like his approach to getting people to cook. I decided tonight to share a favorite “recipe” in order to take part (unofficially) in the festivities surrounding this global event.

Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows I love to cook. I enjoy doing new things with my CSA and farmer’s market finds, and we eat mostly home cooked made from scratch meals.

This is an easy favorite for us. One pan pasta “primavera”.

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You need whatever veggies look good to you that could be roasted. This time I used kale, spinach, spring onions, red onion, diced red potato and TLV Tree Farm uncured bacon. I made the entire package of bacon over the weekend. In the oven, then put away to use. It probably made its way into five or six meals. For this recipe I used four slices, cut into square pieces. I just put all the veggies on a foil lined pan, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper and oregano. Put in a 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes, in order to get the onions and potato done.

Just before dinner I put four ounces of mixed pasta on to cook, and took out some pesto from the freezer, and those marinated mushrooms I made last week. Here is that recipe on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

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I only have one more container of pesto in the freezer. Can’t wait for garlic scapes to come in, so I can start restocking for next winter. I had some greens left from the Burtonsville Market.

This is what dinner looked like. My husband’s plate. Filling, good, easy to throw together, with about two slices of bacon as the meat in this dish.

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Pastas are simple standby meals around here. Tomato sauce or pesto from the freezer. A small amount of protein. Lots of veggies, either steamed or roasted. And, for us on a Tuesday night, it emptied the fridge of CSA veggies to make room for the Wednesday pick up.

hocofood@@@

Abbondanza – Spring Veggies Abound

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CSA Week Eleven from Breezy Willow, a visit to Miller Library market and strawberries from Gorman. Who needs grocery stores in spring and summer around here?

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We got:
Tuscan kale
Three beets (one is hidden)
Romaine (weighs two pounds)
Three pounds sweet potatoes
Half pound shiitake mushrooms
One pound green beans
One pound Brussels sprouts
One pound bean sprouts ( not there, I swapped)

My swap got me three more of those lovely grapefruit. Bread the Great Harvest White. This has become our favorite toast for breakfast. Reminds my husband of English muffins when toasted.

And, last but not least, those lovely eggs. This was the last delivery of eggs for early bird CSA.

I also picked up peach yogurt, Great Harvest croutons for salads and some chicken legs.

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Before hitting the CSA I stopped at Miller Library market to get a few things. Like curry to use with the chicken.

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Fresh veggies from Love Dove to pair with the strawberries. French breakfast radishes and arugula. I know, I know, there are holes in the leaves. I like seeing holes in the leaves. It means no bug died from chomping on pesticide infested veggies. If you want fresh veggies that haven’t been treated, look for holes or bugs (like corn with little happy worms).

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Organic practices. Many of our local farms follow organic practices and give you fresher than grocery store items that aren’t treated or sprayed. For less money most of the time, too.

Got my feta for the salad from Bowling Green. Was looking for short ribs from TLV but will have to wait until Glenwood on Saturday.

Between the farm stands, markets and CSAs in Howard County, you can eat quite well using grocery stores for just a few staples.

Today while out, I did a loop. I had errands in Columbia so I hit Wegmans for coffee, lemons and limes, paper goods, and shrimp. Stopped at Gorman to check out the farm and get some berries. Headed up 29 and hit Miller library before continuing out to Breezy Willow. I have all I need for the vast majority of our meals, using locally sourced items.

Salads. Meats. Stir Fry. Side dishes. Dairy (now that Misty Meadows is at the county markets). Cheese. All readily available and really fresh.

Now, what am I going to make with these lovely shiitakes?

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hocofood@@@

Strawberries at Gorman Farm Today

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I stopped by Gorman Farm today to say hi to Dave and check out the strawberries. I will have a long farm report in a few weeks once the farm stand opens but pick your own strawberries just began yesterday.

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Check their facebook page to see what days they will have strawberries. Dave told me they might not be open some days to allow for more ripening for the weekend. There was a steady stream of visitors at 2 pm when I was there.

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I didn’t pick today as I didn’t have the time to stay, and I would rather enlist my helper aka my better half to make picking go quicker. I did manage to pick up a pre-picked pint to use in a few salads since we got lots of greens in the CSA. Eight of them didn’t make it home though. This is what’s left when I got there.

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So much better tasting than those institutional strawberries at the supermarket. As for other HoCo farms with berries, not ready yet. TLV Tree Farm told me maybe two weeks. Larriland also isn’t open. Their web site says something about late May. Cold weather will do that to you.

hocofood@@@

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