Category Archives: CSA

Winter CSA Week Nine

Posted on February 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

Halfway done. This will be a review of what I have gotten so far and what I think about doing a winter CSA. We don’t have pics of the basket since I was in the hospital and my husband picked up the stuff from the porch and put it away. I had made choices based on knowing what he could do after my coming home this week, and being limited in food choices.

We did get eggs and all Angus beef franks, so my husband has a few things he can make this week. Scrambled eggs one night maybe, and chili dogs another evening, as I have leftover venison chili in the freezer.

I also ordered and received:
large yellow onions
carrots
sweet potatoes
oranges from FL
frozen fajita peppers
frozen broccoli and cauliflower

He can stir fry the veggies for a meal later this week.

What I Like About a Winter CSA
This one delivers to your porch. You go on line and order six or ten items. They change weekly to some extent but not always. There are repeats obviously due to the limited amount of winter veggies available. They have flash frozen items that they offer regularly. The eggs are great; different colors and sizes. Big yellow yolks. The meat is really good, but I had hoped for more varieties. Still nine weeks to go. We shall see what we get. But, the half of a free range turkey at Christmas was awesome.

Difficulties of a Winter CSA
You have to like potatoes and carrots and winter greens. Weather can be a factor for delivery, but at least this year not much bad weather to affect deliveries. Not much variety in the veggies, and some of it looks pretty gnarly. It tastes great though. It just doesn’t always look wonderful. I know that is a problem with many. They want picture perfect veggies, and organic farm produce isn’t.

Will we do it again? Probably. We like the convenience of fresh food delivered to our home. The family farm in Essex is being run well by George and Libby. It is small and personal, so you know where your food comes from. Zahradka Farm is a great source for Howard Countians to find local foods delivered to them.

Where else would you get a “Christmas Tree” to serve at your Christmas dinner?

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Winter CSA Week Eight

Posted on February 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

What was on the front porch today?

The cooler had a great surprise in it. A chicken. From the Zahradka farm. Free range. No hormones or antibiotics. It has been squeezed into the out of control freezer destined for the crockpot sometime next week.

This week I asked for and received:
1 large yellow onion
kale
spinach
sweet potatoes
leeks
radishes

Everything looks good, and has been cleaned for storage. Menu planning is in full swing.

hocoblogs@@@

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Winter CSA Week Seven

Posted on February 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

We are back to a Friday delivery. I did have the cooler out, thankfully, for the eggs and the beef. This week I got the makings of soups, greens and stews, and some oranges from the Florida partner farms.

The carrots are huge, and like all winter carrots that we have found, they have a sweetness due to the starch to sugar conversion associated with cold weather growing. Something new I learned in my earliest forays into gardening in spring and fall.

This week’s celery is the largest we have received so far, and the best texture. These veggies are getting into their stride, so to speak. Destined for a soup next week with some beef from Boarman’s and the carrots and huge white onions from a Baugher’s visit a few weeks back.

Since the weather turned cold, and it snowed last night, more soups are coming on the menu. The cauliflower will go into soup, same with potatoes. I love soup and bread for dinner when it is cold.

hocoblogs@@@

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Eating Locally Hasn’t Been All That Difficult

Posted on February 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

Here we are, I believe on Week Eleven of the “Dark Days Challenge“, where over 100 of us from across the US, with one or two from Canada and the UK, are trying to see if we can make one meal a week using ingredients sourced from 150 miles or less from where we live. We have exceptions like spices, oils, chocolate and coffee. Plus, whatever we declared before we started. I will use locally produced items that may contain ingredients like flour or baking powder that aren’t local. Atwater’s bread is one of those sources.

So far, every week I have been able to source and use local items to make at least one meal. I finally reached the repetitive stage in this week, the eleventh one. I did an omelet for dinner, not much different than my frittata of a few weeks ago.

Finding a CSA that delivers all winter, and having numerous markets open year round, has made this fairly simple. Silver Spring, Tacoma Park and Dupont Circle all stay open year round. Zahradka farm provides home delivered veggies, fruit, meat, eggs, bread, and specially ordered items using an online weekly form. After picking which options you want for the 18 weeks, and pay in advance, we just sit back and take delivery weekly.

For this meal, the inspiration was a package of bacon from TLV Tree Farm in Glenelg, bought from Jamie this past year at the Fall Fest at the Howard County Conservancy in October and put away in my freezer with other goodies like a brisket and sausages. I defrosted it to use for Tuesday’s omelet and for Southern greens I will be making this weekend when my CSA arrives with collard greens. I admit, belonging to a CSA means you have to plan meals.

The baby Swiss cheese from a recent visit to South Mountain Creamery along with their milk and unsalted butter is going to be used for this 5 egg omelet. I am getting my biweekly delivery of eggs this coming weekend from Zahradka Farm CSA so I needed to use up some of the ones from last month. The spinach is from the CSA as well. The mushrooms I picked up at Boarman’s. They are labeled as from our favorite local source, Kennett Square PA. I get these mushrooms most of the spring and fall from the Sandy Spring CSA that delivers to Columbia and to the Conservancy.

Come this May will mark our second year with the cooperative of 70-80 organic farmers around Lancaster, including Mother Earth mushrooms. Until then, though, I am eating lots of greens, onions, potatoes, leeks, chard, cauliflower and broccoli. Eating seasonally is something many of us stopped doing when year round veggies from all over the world came into our chain supermarkets.

Taking this challenge has brought me back to simple cooking, fresh foods and decreased allergies. I am glad I did it.

On to the omelet, I cut up some bacon, browned it in the pan, added the veggies and mushrooms, then poured in the egg and milk mixture.

The finished product fell in pieces when I was trying to serve it so there are no dinner pictures.

We poured a glass of Linden Chardonnay from VA and buttered some some Atwater’s Bread, making this a completely local meal except for the salt and pepper.

A source that I have relied upon to tell me where to find local foods is the book Dishing Up Maryland by Lucie Snodgrass. I bought mine at Black Ankle vineyards last year, and I have seen it at Baugher’s Market. Besides the great recipes, there are pages of local resources in the back, a great place to find farms, artisans and markets in the state.

hocoblogs@@@

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Winter CSA Week Six

Posted on February 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

This week our delivery has been moved to Saturdays. The Zahradka Farm has stopped taking on members for the rest of the winter, and the delivery routes adjusted so that we are a Saturday morning drop off.

This week we got another package of beef sausage. I do wish we would get other meats. I have an email in to ask.

My items were:
cauliflower
bag of spinach
2 lbs. white potatoes
2 lbs. sweet potatoes
3 yellow and 2 red delicious apples
1 1/2 lb. sweet winter carrots

I already have plans for most of it. Cauliflower will go into a soup later this week. Spinach omelet with local swiss cheese and the eggs from last week. I used one of the carrots in my Dark Days meal last night.

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This is Winter?

Posted on February 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

Really. Today it hit 67 degrees. Yesterday 64 degrees. Where is winter? But, I am not complaining. We fired up the grill yesterday.

In the spirit of Dark Days, the potatoes were CSA. The merquez lamb sausage was from Whitmore Farm in Emmitsburg MD, bought at The Common Market. I did deviate a bit with naan from Wegman’s and olive bar Mediterranean salad. Still main part of the meal was local.

Monday night I did an omelet. All local with the exception of the parmesan sprinkled on top at the end and a few Nicoise olives from Wegman’s. CSA eggs, PA mushrooms, chard, collard and beet greens, CSA and Silver Spring Market. Onion from CSA. South Mountain Creamery baby Swiss cheese. A splash of South Mountain whole milk in the egg mixture.

As for tonight, Wednesday, heated up leftovers from Sunday night’s Dark Days meal. Three days down, most dinners local.

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Winter CSA Week Five

Posted on January 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Friday came and went quickly. The delivery was placed on the porch about 4 PM. Egg week, and beef sausage again. Hopefully, now that we have made up for the huge turkey the first week, we will get something larger next week. The meat share averages $10 a week, but the half turkey at Christmas was close to 15 pounds of free range turkey. Hence, the smaller deliveries these past weeks. I am hoping to see pork or chicken soon.

Here is what we got:
four sweet winter carrots
a bag of Yukon gold potatoes
a large red onion
two large “heads” of collard greens
a bag of spinach
four tangelos from the FL farmer

Getting vegetables that are picked the day before you eat them is what makes being a CSA member so satisfying. The broccoli from last week was so much better than what you see in the stores. This week’s spinach went directly into a salad Friday night, and two of the potatoes were used in dinner as well.

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Winter CSA Week 4

Posted on January 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

Almost forgot to post the CSA delivery, since so much is going on and then of course, it snowed.

Week Four brought us Angus ground beef, celery, large spanish onion, four sweet potatoes, a bag of microgreens, baby beets and two crowns of broccoli. The beef is from Pleasantville Beef, just like the last two weeks. Hoping we will get pork soon, or chicken.

Thankfully the snow and ice came Saturday and not Friday the delivery day. I cleaned the greens, and they are ready to use. Lopped off the tops of the beets and roasted the beets for salad. Put the tops of the celery in the freezer to use for a stock later next week, had a sweet potato for dinner last night, and will use the onion in my brisket today.

It is so nice not to have to run to the store to make dinner.

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Dark Days One Pot Meal Challenge

Posted on January 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

So this week we are challenged to make a one pot dinner using local ingredients. I decided to make a frittata, since I have too many eggs at the moment.

The ingredients are ready to go.

The first step was to get the onion, collard and beet greens, all from my Zahradka farms CSA delivery, wilted down in the Trickling Springs butter, in the heated cast iron skillet.

I mixed six eggs from the CSA together with salt and pepper, to add to the pan after I added half the container of Bacon Jam from Virginia Lamb and Meats to give it a lovely bacony flavor. I bought the jam at the Dupont Circle farmer’s market in December and really needed to use it. I also grated some Baby Swiss from South Mountain Creamery over the top before adding the eggs and tomato.

Poured the eggs around it all, and arranged on top of it all a locally grown Hummingbird Farms hydroponic heirloom tomato I picked up at Roots Market during a recent visit down to Columbia.

After it cooked for a while on the stove top, I placed it under the broiler to finish the top and brown it off.

The finished product being plated. The only non-local items in the meal were salt, pepper, and parsley. The parsley was organic, and came from Roots. Not local though. Dinner also included a 2010 Sauvignon Blanc from Glen Manor Vineyard, from our visit earlier this month.

A very satisfying and tasty Sunday night dinner, with the earthiness of the greens, the brightness of the tomato, and the unmistakable melting bacon jam adding the right touch to the dish. Another successful venture into cooking with foods from 100 miles or less from our doorstep.

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Winter CSA Week Three and a Visit to Breezy Willow

Posted on January 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Thanks to Victoria at The Soffritto, I found out Breezy Willow Farm Store is open on Saturdays, so today we went to get flour, cheese, and onions. I think I took the same picture as she did, so I won’t add it here. I emailed Union Mills in advance to ask about the flour and found it to be mostly all local. The whole wheat is from a bit farther away, but does include some VA and PA grown wheat.

I need to add them to our local resource page.

Yesterday, at 4 PM, I heard the cooler being closed on the front porch, which means CSA delivery. I really like getting food delivered to my front porch on Fridays. I could get used to it.

I had chosen:
beets
red potatoes
micro greens
cabbage
collard greens
grapefruit from Florida

We also got: All Beef Franks, and my bi-weekly dozen eggs

The greens looked so great. I used the salad spinner to clean them up, and made a great salad later to have with homemade beef vegetable soup that had been simmering in the crockpot.

I definitely agree with our CSA coordinators that a salad spinner, or two, is the way to go when cleaning greens, and for storing them. Every week I clean up and prep the greens to have instant access to fresh beautiful vegetables.