Category Archives: CSA

A Day at the Farm

Posted on May 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was the first CSA picnic of the season. I took off this morning to drive up US 1 over the Conowingo Dam to visit one of the organic Amish farms that supply the Sandy Spring CSA, which delivers on Thursdays to Columbia. This is our second year of this CSA and a visit to the farms is a monthly treat in the summertime.

This organic farm is 12 acres of produce and 12 acres of pasture. There were baby chicks and ducks for the children to see, and lots of good food, brought by CSA members and cooked by the Amish families who supply us with our produce. Out of respect for the preference to not be photographed, I only took pics where the families were not present. So, no food pics or pics from the tour. We got lovely homemade ice cream from a farm up the road served with the berries from this farm. We all brought potluck to share.

This pic shows the kitchen garden that CSA members from as far away as Brooklyn NY were checking out. Notice the buggy that transported one of the neighbor families over to the farm for our picnic. We toured the barn and got baskets to go pick strawberries after touring the fields.

The view down the hill showing all the cars parked in a meadow. There were about a hundred of us there today. The CSA has 3500 member families in the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, about 500 of them are in Sandy Spring with us.

Strawberry picking on the hillside above the house and fields.

The strawberries are grown completely without sprays or treatments, all organic. That means little critters chew on the leaves but isn’t ugly fruit the best fruit?

This was a picture perfect day, and as I left I followed one of the neighbors up the hill.

By the time I got home, some of the berries were missing from my pint. Berries and ice cream for dessert tonight.

Can’t wait for next month, when we visit another farm.

hocofood@@@

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Summer CSA Week Three

Posted on May 25, 2012 by AnnieRie

I needed a wide angle lens and I had to stand on a stool to get it all in the picture. This week, the box was chock full of goodies.

Twelve items. Yep, we got to the pick up site and found the boxes full of veggies. The list from the site:

A peek down into a loaded box:

I swapped the kale for a second package of garlic scapes. I want to make another batch of pesto to put in ice cube trays and save for winter cooking. Easy, and so good to use in the dead of winter.

My cost analysis this week yielded even bigger savings than the previous weeks.

Lettuce mix – 18 oz. would cost $10 at Roots. Scallions $1.69. Garlic scapes $2 a bunch X 2 = $4. Bok Choy $3.69. Spinach $3. Collards $3. Radishes $2. Turnips $2.50. Kohlrabi $3. Rainbow Chard $3. Broccoli $2.50. Total for equivalent of organic and farm raised veggies is $38.40. I pay $29.75 a week for the CSA. Again, this week’s organic haul is a bargain. Total savings for the three weeks is $21.15. In good years like this one so far, CSAs are a real bargain, but the risk of a bad year is always out there.

Did I use everything last week? All but the kale, which I swear will become kale chips Sunday or Monday. A couple of red scallions, and half a head of romaine. Everything else got used. So, I did OK in the consumption department. I will leave this post with a pic of one of the mostly local dinners I made using CSA and market foods, and a local wine.

The wild ahi wasn’t local, nor was the Pacific Red Pepper Tomato Soup that made the sauce. The ahi was braised in sauce with red scallions from the CSA, and olive oil. The bread is Atwater’s rosemary Italian. The potatoes came from the Olney market. The garlic scape pesto I made using local scapes, not local pine nuts and parmesan and olive oil. The wine, a lovely Vin Rouge from Glen Manor in VA was the perfect weight to complement the big flavors in the pesto and in the red pepper tomato sauced ahi. 2010 was a hot dry year. This wine was 14.9% alcohol but didn’t feel like it. Good balance of flavors. I saw an email from Jeff White, the owner and winemaker, that came today saying this Vin Rouge is running low. If you want a lovely wine in a Bordeaux style produced here on the East Coast, this is a good one.

I will be using more of the garlic scape pesto tonight making Israeli couscous with pesto, and a side of fresh English peas, asparagus and mint. Dessert will be fresh strawberries with buttermilk cake from the market, and vanilla ice cream, not local unfortunately since South Mountain is missing from the market.

This entire month I went to a chain grocery store once, and spent less than $50 getting staples. You can eat well in season using local markets and your CSA. I really love this time of year. The start of the fresh food season. Now, what to do with kohlrabi?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, GGSAC, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, GGSAC, hoco loco, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Getting Ready for a Hectic Holiday Weekend

Posted on May 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

So much to do this weekend, with the holiday and with all the other events going on. What will tempt you to spend time out and about? Are you a beach goer? Or do you stay local?

Our weekend kicks off early with Wine in the Garden at the Conservancy tomorrow night. Cross your fingers for good weather. If you haven’t pre-purchased tickets, they will be selling them at the entrance. Come sip and taste in the loveliness of the Honors Garden.

Saturday I may be off to PA for a picnic at one of the farmers who supplies our CSA. It may be me and a friend, as my OldMan (OM in amateur radio speak) will be contesting and a weekend of listening to him calling “CQ Contest, CQ contest”, is hard to take. Oh wait, this is the CQ WW WPX CW contest, so all I get to hear is key clicks. Translation of the above, means it is the Morse Code only contest, and one where hams try to work as many unique prefixes, like JY, which is Jordan, or 9WA which is Malaysia.

Complicated, and easy to do if you have a unique prefix and everyone wants to call you, harder if you are a W something, like my hubby is. No one looking for him once they have worked W3LPL. He has to work hard to find all the unique prefixes out there. And, we only have wires, not towers.

Sunday I will wander back to Olney to get some fresh berries, and hope that the VA farmers there have cherries. We got our tentative list of what will be in this week’s CSA basket so I only need fruit to supplement the greens this week. I don’t want to touch the berries I processed while fresh goodies are still in the local markets. I will know tomorrow what I will be grilling if it stops threatening storms every night.

Monday we will be chilling out and avoiding those traffic clogged roads. Memorial Day traffic on the highways around here is crazy, so a day of grilling, chilling and drinking local wine sounds like a perfect ending to the holiday weekend.

Then, as retirees with nothing pressing to do later in the week, we will take a day to visit my hubby’s hometown and check on the grave sites for his dad and mom.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Community, CSA, Day Trips, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Retirement and tagged amateur radio, community, CSA, day trips, farmer's markets, Food, grilling, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Enjoying Friday’s Bounty

Posted on May 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

Last Friday I wrote about picking strawberries, and visiting the hospital market where I found garlic scapes and rhubarb. These fresh fruits and veggies will be part of tonight’s dinner. Two dishes, one made Saturday and one made this morning.

Garlic scapes. Never knew what they were until last year in the CSA. These are from Love Dove Farm. I bought four bundles, enough to make a double batch of pesto.

If you look closely, you can see the bulging area where a flower would emerge, if left on the plant. The farmers remove this scape, in order to force the plant to devote energy into growing the root, or the heads of garlic. Not removing the scape will inhibit the growth of the heads of garlic. These curling plants have a more delicate flavor than garlic cloves but they still pack a big punch when whirled up in the blender with parmesan, pine nuts, olive oil and salt.

I made enough to freeze some in small containers, and put a large container covered in olive oil in the fridge. It will be served tonight with pasta as a side to some tomato braised ahi, which will be slow cooked in the oven later today.

The small containers were coated lightly with oil, sealed and put in a bag to go in the freezer. The large one more heavily coated as it will be in the fridge a few days. Besides tonight, I will be making bruschetta this weekend using the ends of the Atwater’s rosemary Italian bread. I don’t always follow recipes. I cook by taste, but this was 24 scapes, about a cup of Parm, a half cup of pine nuts, salt to taste, and oil streamed in until it reached the consistency I wanted.

As for dessert tonight, it will be the strawberry rhubarb crisp I made over the weekend. Using the Larriland strawberries and rhubarb from Falcon Ridge Farm, bought at the hospital market, I made a simple crisp. The juicy strawberries made this crisp moister than the rhubarb crumble I made a week ago.

We had some Sunday night and will slice off some more tonight. If I look back at my plans, I didn’t do either thing I said I would in my Saturday post. The chicken was made with a fruit salsa, and I made the crisp instead of a compote. I tend to cook on impulse, so planning sometimes goes for nothing. I didn’t get around to doing the pesto until today.

I also did get the strawberry ice cubes popped out and packaged for use later in the summer. These little nuggets will find their way into vinaigrettes, sangrias, wine coolers, and compotes.

Can’t wait to see what we get in the CSA box Thursday. I did use up almost everything except the kale. I do want to make kale chips. Let’s see if I find the time to do so. Check out this week’s goodies at the markets and make something fresh and seasonal this weekend.

hocofood@@@

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Sandy Spring CSA Week Two

Posted on May 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Never fails. Buy something at the farmers market and you get it in the box. Strawberries. Weren’t listed in the preview post, but we always know there are substitutions and often additions. This was a pleasant addition.

And yes, we are officially drowning in greens. But, I did swap cilantro for mushrooms. Better to make mushroom pate. We are allowed one swap a week. I swap herbs usually, since I grow so many of them. Cilantro without tomatoes to make salsa, not my thing. I also have more than enough greens to do pesto, which I will make since I stopped at Costco today and got pine nuts and pistachios. I do some interesting pestos. Like the garlic scape pesto in this often posted pic of mushroom pate and garlic scape pesto I took to a party.

Ok, I never knew what vitamin greens were until we got them. Now I know. They are interesting and can be made many ways. Learn something new every week. Don’t have any clue what they would cost if we bought them, but suppose they are as expensive as microgreens.

This week we got:
14 ounces vitamin greens
one bunch red scallions
one head green romaine
one head red leaf lettuce
one box cremini
one box white mushrooms
one bunch cilantro (I swapped this to get another box of white mushrooms)
one large bunch of green kale
one pint strawberries

All organic. The estimated cost came to somewhere between $32-$35 depending on where you source it. Finding all this is difficult as a source for vitamin greens means a trip to DC to a market there.

After two weeks, paying $29.75 a week for our CSA we have $38 and $34, which means we are up $12.50 for cost. If I used the cheaper cost for the mushrooms, which can be found at Frank’s Produce in Waterloo behind Costco for $1.99 for the white mushrooms, it would have been $2 less. But, the gas mileage to get there just for mushrooms would have negated the savings.

What am I going to make?

Kale Chips. I love them and make them once every spring.
Mushroom Pate
Lots and lots of salads.
Strawberries with ice cream from South Mountain, or buttermilk cake from Stone House Bakery (I will be buying both this Saturday at the Glenwood market.)

Two weeks in. Loving the surprises, and the quality of the veggies.

hocofood@@@

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Summer is Coming! Think Pink!

Posted on May 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

Summer is Rosé season around here. This is one of the best around, only surpassed by Linden. This one is very much in the style of a good Provence Rosé.

Monday night I poured out a couple of glasses to have with a frittata made with local ingredients, and realized just how often we turn to the local wineries to find a crisp refreshing dry Rosé to serve in the hotter months. I even found a new term for me to use to describe what we drink often. We are locapours, drinking locally crafted beers, wines, ciders, and ales.

The frittata, by the way, is one of my locavore specialties, made with whatever I found locally in the markets. It was made with the last of the winter CSA eggs, smoked salmon from the Catonsville market, pesto stuffed tomatoes (the tomatoes were from David’s and not local), greens from the spring CSA box. Almost all locally sourced. The pesto was big, with some cress and with the last of my black walnuts. Started on the stovetop and finished under the broiler.

Easy dinner. Good, too.

Today it’s off to the Miller Library farmer’s market to get eggs and some berries, if they have berries. Otherwise Larriland this weekend, I believe is ready.

hocofood@@@

The Garden Is In!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

Done. Finished. Well almost. I still have to mulch tomorrow. But all the plants are in. In Howard County, the rule of thumb is don’t plant tomatoes until Mother’s Day. No frosts in the county and hopefully temps that will stay above fifty degrees.

I am experimenting this year. Part will be heavily mulched, and part has black fabric with light mulch. Mulch tomorrow and a light input of food, and I am done. The rain the next few days should establish the plants.

As for my herb garden, it is going gangbusters. The sage is huge and is flowering.

The English thyme that overwintered came back with a vengeance.

All the other plants are doing well. I put in 32 tomato plants today. I may be selling tomatoes on street corners in August, but who cares. If they all don’t make it, at least what does, will keep me happy through the summer, fall and winter. I will be freezing and canning.

As for current goodies, tonight we had plum tomatoes from David’s stuffed with homemade pesto. A hearty, killer pesto made with greens from the CSA, walnuts, parmesan and olive oil. Not that pretty, but so tasty.

I low temp roasted some wild ahi and served it with the tomatoes and some cremini stuffed with this pesto. The greens in the pesto included Persian cress, turnip greens and curly parsley from my CSA delivery.

We opened an old local wine.

Breaux is about an hour away, just south of Harper’s Ferry. This 1999 Cabernet was still doing very well for its age. It had the berry taste that the back label described, even after 13 years. The smoky oak was still there. DH swore he picked up the anise that the label described, but I didn’t. All in all, a softer version of a young cab, perfect to compliment big, tomatoey tuna with a pesto that stood up and said, look at me.

Walnuts in pesto will do that.

hocofood@@@

What’s In The Box?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

I now love Thursdays because they are CSA delivery days, my weekly Christmas on Thursday. We got our first box today for the Sandy Spring CSA. My new pickup point is an outparcel of Columbia off Cedar Lane. The list at the site had the confirmed contents of what was harvested and packed for the 40 or so members of this drop off point. We get to go to the web site and see in advance what they hope to pick and box.

CSA contents Week One

The collards were the only thing not included in the final tally. That’s OK because eleven items, mostly greens, is more than enough. I barely fit them all in a picture.

The hubby and I did a quick calculation of what we would pay at farmers’ markets and Roots for organic veggies like this. Since I had to stop at Roots to get organic chicken and shiitake mushrooms and ginger to make chicken chow mein with the bok choy, I got some of their prices. The tally here:

We got a pound of lettuce mix. At Silver Spring Market, for organic lettuce mix, it is $14 a pound. At Roots,$9.

We got a large bok choy weighing 12 ounces. At Roots, $3.69 a pound. Cost approximately $3.

Leaf lettuce, $2.49 each. We got two. So, $5.

Scallions, two bunches. Ours were a bit bigger than Roots. They were $1.69 a bunch. So, $3.50.

Parsley. $1.69.

Cress. $1.69, but ours was Persian cress and way more of it than the bunch at Roots. We had 10 ounces of cress. Estimate around $3 for ours.

Spinach $2.49 a bunch. Our 5 small bunches were about the equivalent of twice the size of their bunch. So, $5.

French breakfast radishes. No real comparison, but their radishes were $2.49 a bunch. Say our specialty radishes, like those we find only at Dupont Circle and cost $4 a bunch.

Baby Hakurei turnips. Last time I bought them at Dupont they cost me $4.

Total:

Conservatively — $38. If I got fresh organic lettuce mix instead of Roots in a plastic container, add $5.

The $29.72 a week we pay for this CSA is well worth the price, considering I don’t have to run to organic markets and far away farmer’s markets to get some amazingly fresh veggies. We like the surprises, and the exotic items are interesting to experiment.

It takes about 30-40 minutes to clean and put away the veggies.

I have already been menu planning, and chow mein is a big item. So is a colcannon with turnips, potatoes from Boarman’s, the turnip greens, radish greens and some of the cress and spinach.

A pesto or two is also in the running.

Salads for lunch with some tuna or chicken.

I love opening that box and seeing what goodness is within it.

hocofood@@@

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Foraging, Cultivating, Harvesting and Shopping

Posted on May 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

Busy series of days. Don’t forget the Howard County Farmer’s Markets are open this week. Wednesday through Sunday.

I don’t know which one(s) I will get to visit, as I have to see what is in the CSA Box tomorrow. We got our tentative list. Twelve items!! At least, unless there is a typo and we aren’t getting scallions twice. We have gotten duplicates in the past, when items are plentiful from multiple sources. Since there are more than sixty farms in our CSA coop, we get similar items from individual sources.

As for the foraging, slowly I am finding single spears of asparagus out under the crepe myrtle. I now have four. By the weekend, two more and then maybe asparagus risotto will find its way on the menu.

The pole beans are in. The cukes go in later today, as they were all getting really leggy hanging around inside with the tomato plants. The tomatoes I will plant Saturday or Sunday. We may get one or two cool evenings and I want them to wait a few more days.

As for harvesting, the lettuces and greens are still going nuts. Dinner tonight will include arugula and microgreens from the boxes I have outside in a bunny resistant arrangement.

Arugula – spicy, peppery and so good in salads.

Greens by the back door, protected from strong sun will go all summer this way.

As for the markets, pick up some herbs and put in a pot or two. Great to snip fresh herbs on your grilled dinners.

Going full bore, and so good to use. Notice the cover in the background protecting the basil overnight. It is doing well, even though planted a little early. Sage, rosemary, lavender, tarragon, marjoram, thyme and mint. Really easy to grow.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Anticipation, anticipation. Is makin’ me late. Is keepin’ me waitin’ …

Posted on May 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

Can’t get that Carly Simon song out of my head. Why? Waiting to see what will be in our first Sandy Spring CSA box this Thursday.

I keep checking the web site. Tonight or tomorrow morning we will get the proposed list for the Columbia site. It should be similar to what the Montgomery County sites get tomorrow.

There are sixty plus farmers, organic, all small, in the coop. They rotate who gets what each week, as they can’t supply all of us with a certain veggie every week. It may be week one or two when we get something like asparagus, for example.

The boxes sit in a large stack in the garage of the home where we do our pick up. We will check off our name, and empty the contents into our bags we bring. The boxes get recycled. If we ordered meat or dairy, or a specialty item they will be in the cooler with our name on it.

It’s just like Christmas, only healthier.

I see everyone is getting cremini mushrooms. Hopefully we will, too. Mother Earth supplies our mushrooms. I see one set of sites is getting bok choy and scallions. Sounds like chicken chow mein night to me. I have everything else to make it. Just need the bok choy, and I will use the mushrooms in it as well.

This is the fun part of being in a CSA. The excitement of what is in the box. Although I have never heard of “vitamin greens”. Sounds like a fancy name for microgreens.

Springtime we get lots of greens. There will be many stir fries and salads. That is OK.

The nice part about this arrangement is how I can plan the Howard County Farmer’s Market visits around it. Get my box on Thursday. Hit the hospital market on Friday, or Glenwood on Saturday to get meat, dairy, bread and fruit. A whole week’s meal buying from local vendors and an organic coop.

Mushroom pate sounds good to me.