Category Archives: Farms

This Week’s Basket

Posted on February 28, 2014 by AnnieRie

It’s been so busy around here, I almost forgot about this week’s Friends and Farms basket. A really full basket this time.

Today my husband and I were talking. He is amazed that we rarely see a need to visit grocery stores much. This pick up of food, and my visits to the local farms, and my freezer full of Larriland goodness pretty much keeps us stocked for the winter.

What did we get this week?

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Let’s take it in stages, as it wouldn’t all fit in a picture.

I get a dozen eggs weekly, instead of milk. We are now getting eggs from a farm in Clinton MD. Mostly brown eggs, with a very deep yellow yolk. We got four more Asian pears. Love these pears, as they are so crisp and sweet. We got hydroponic spring mix, enough for two salads. And, grapefruit. Two of those. Root veggies, said the preview. That meant a few parsnips and one humongous carrot. A couple of onions.

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The meat included one whole chicken, uncured bacon and a small pork loin roast. Perfect sizes for the two of us. This was an egg week in the description, but since I get eggs weekly instead of milk, this week I got the yogurt. I picked vanilla, in order to mix it with my frozen berries from our summer picking at Larriland. We got rosemary and garlic, perfect for the chicken, and the pork. Potatoes and swiss chard. There will be a frittata early next week.

And, I almost forgot the bread. On the table they had lots of fruit breads this week, from the Breadery. Pumpkin, blueberry, cinnamon raisin. We aren’t fruit bread people so I picked a par-baked ciabatta.

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Should be good when I make chicken soup with the leftovers from baking the chicken today.

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This chicken, spatchcocked with butter, rosemary, garlic, and tarragon under the skin, and drizzled with olive oil became dinner. Except for the breast meat, which will become soup Sunday.

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I made creamed spinach with the rest of the spinach from last week. The rest of the angel hair pasta, cooked and served with grated Parmesan and lemon infused olive oil.

With a local wine. What could be better for a Friday night?

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A Linden Avenius chardonnay.

Dessert? Trickling Springs salted caramel ice cream. This was really a local meal, in the dead of winter. Can’t beat that.

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Cabin Fever

Posted on February 26, 2014 by AnnieRie

When you wake up many mornings, too many in fact, to a variation of this view …

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… you start thinking about the Jimmy Buffett song “Boat Drinks” particularly that line about shooting holes in the freezer.

Thankfully, the Howard County blogging community has a cure for cabin fever. Another get together, this time at the newly opened White Oak Tavern, on Route 40, in the Enchanted Forest shopping center.

The party is tomorrow night, the 27th. 5:30-7:30 pm. White Oak Tavern is a farm to table restaurant featuring lots of locally sourced items. The type of place I like to see succeed here.

A few of their sources, lifted from their winter menu.

Wagon Wheel Ranch – Grass-fed Beef, Free Range Chicken,
and Pastured Berkshire Pork

South Mountain Creamery – Dairy products from grass-fed cows

Mozzarella, peach ice cream and provolone from SMC

Hilltop Acres – Pastured Berkshire and Mulefoot Pork

Chapel’s Country Creamery – artisanal Cheese

Zahradka – Produce
Tuscarora Produce
Atwater’s Bread Co
Vann’s Spice Co
Zeke’s Coffee

I am intrigued by Vann’s. I have thought of going down to Rockville to Penzey’s, but might try ordering a few of the harder to find spices from this locally owned family business.

Come join our friendly local Howard County bloggers for a pint of ale, some good conversation, and maybe a burger and fries, or some ice cream from just up the pike.

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Holding It Close

Posted on February 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in closely sourced items for a stellar Valentine’s Day dinner.

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When you look at this dinner plate, you can’t tell initially that it reflects a commitment to local, seasonal and small business sourced items for a meal.

Filet Mignon. Green bean casserole. Baked potato.

What is local about all this?

The Filets. England Acres.

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Pan seared and coated with a mushroom gravy.

Potatoes. From our Friends and Farms basket. Baked. Then sprinkled with truffle salt, and doused in white balsamic. A couple of specialty items from Secolari.

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A simple green bean casserole.

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Mixed together and baked.

Really. Why go to restaurants when at a fraction of the cost you can make a simple meal with better items.

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Really Great Customer Service …

Posted on February 12, 2014 by AnnieRie

… begins and ends with communication. And, accommodation. And, great products.

With crazy weather approaching, we wondered “How will Friends and Farms get our weekly items to us?”

We shouldn’t have worried. We got emails this morning, linking us to the updated page about inclement weather. Followed a few hours later with more information.

Do you want to come in tonight to pick up? Extended warehouse hours. Facebook pictures of staff filling extra baskets for those of us who pick up tomorrow.

We got there at 4:15. Lots of people there. Efficient drop off of bags and name taking. Extra staff shuttling baskets out from the warehouse.

Communication that bread wasn’t available as The Breadery delivers the morning of pick up. Do you would to come in over the weekend, or get two loaves next week?

I got home and noticed, in the insulated bag, my quick frozen green beans were missing. Popped off an email.

Got a response back in ten minutes from Tim, one of the founders. Apologies and choices. Did I want to pick up this weekend with the bread, or have it held until next week?

Since I want the bread for Sunday breakfast and for the egg salad I want to make for the weekend, I am popping over to pick up.

What did we get though? A winter “CSA style” basket is definitely regional, and definitely seasonal.

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Hydroponic Bibb lettuce. Grown in high tunnels in the winter. Hamlin oranges from Florida. These juicy oranges are perfect for making salads. Like my fennel and orange salad. One humongous cabbage. There will be “blind pigeons” next week. My MIL’s recipe, using some sausage and ground beef mixed, with rice and some of that really flavorful tomato puree we got.

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We also got two large red onions. Again, my go-to onion for salads. These are firm and fresh. So much nicer than what I find in the grocery stores.

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Grape tomatoes to make a Bibb and tomato salad. Eggs (which I now get weekly instead of milk). My favorite Amish yogurt, which I now get biweekly (substituted this instead of the biweekly eggs others get).

I love the customization flexibility. I really enjoy the variety of the meats.

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This week there was a “breakfast” meat. Fresh turkey sausage. The main source for beef, pork, and lamb we have been getting is Wayne Nell and Sons near York PA. We also got two rib eye steaks, perfect for a Valentine Dinner. And, chicken.

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This week, boneless/skinless chicken thighs. I am thinking of all sorts of things to make with this chicken. Freebird is just awesome. You can enter your package code and “meat” the farmer who raised this chicken.

Really happy with Friends and Farms, enough to write about them often. We just renewed our subscription for 13 weeks.

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Just A Small Basket

Posted on February 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

That’s all it is supposed to be. But, it is filled with large flavor. And some really fun surprises.

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There are the usual winter veggies and fruit. Like potatoes, apples, Swiss chard. There is an interesting cheese, a Weissa Kase, from an Amish farm.

Breadery Bread. This week we chose Montana white.

This wasn’t an egg week, but I just modified my basket to make eggs an item instead of milk. The biweekly eggs will become that luscious rich yogurt. I love the flexibility to customize what we get.

Protein this week. A sirloin steak and a couple of beautiful tuna filets.

I already made them for dinner tonight, along with some of the green beans from a few weeks back.

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It was pretty simple. Pan fry the steaks with some sesame seeds and salt and pepper, in olive oil. Steam the green beans. Add a few sauces.

My favorites this week, though, are the edamame. And, the peanuts.

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The Virginia raw peanuts. Ready to be roasted. I am torn between making peanut butter, saving them for making granola, and being really bad and making “Peanut-tella” aka a Smitten Kitchen recipe. Using cocoa and powdered sugar. The only other thing I need to make this is peanut oil, which I can easily find.

Who knows what I will do with the peanuts?

We also got egg noodles, and some frozen corn. Not a bad haul for the middle of winter.

Meal planning is dynamic and fun, thanks to Friends and Farms.

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Posted on February 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

Ordinarily I am not a big fan of chicken breast. Usually too dry and without the taste that legs, thighs and wings have (at least to my taste preferences).

I tried a new technique for me, and made a very satisfying dinner tonight. Half the chicken in dinner, and the rest will become a chicken corn chowder base in a day or two.

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Made in a stir fry pan. Here is what I did.

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I had a pound of boneless chicken breast from our first Friends and Farms basket. I wanted chicken pieces that were moist. So, I started out with the chicken fat that had been skimmed off the stock I made with a whole chicken last week. I heated it up in the pan and added the chicken in strips and cubes. Let it cook slowly in the “schmaltz”. Pulled out the chicken and removed all the fat from the pan.

Put in my base.

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Remember that jam jar dressing recipe from last week? Made with maple yogurt and Dijon mustard. Well, over the weekend I made another batch right in the mustard container, using equal amounts of mustard and yogurt and adding the cider vinegar and oil in the appropriate ratio. I put some coconut milk in the pan, about six ounces, added two teaspoons of flour, salt, pepper, and a healthy squirt of the mustard dressing. Made a white sauce. Added about four ounces of my oven roasted cherry tomatoes, taken from my freezer. Put the chicken back after adding another couple of ounces of milk to get the consistency I wanted.

A little sprinkle of tarragon, and of paprika. Kept on a low simmer while I made some of the Pappardelle’s pasta from Secolari.

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I used about four ounces of the pasta that made two servings of pasta. Added about half the chicken mixture. That leaves me with half a pound of chicken to make the soup later this week.

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The finished dish. I was considering adding cheese, but it was fine all by itself.

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Served with a Maryland Chardonnay from Big Cork. The 2012 vintage. Perfect match to the creaminess of the sauce, this big chardonnay balanced the meal. The salad. Made with the Bibb lettuce from last week’s basket.

I have to admit. It is easy around here to eat locally, even in the dead of winter. The chicken. The tomatoes from the freezer. The schmaltz from a local roasting chicken bought last fall. The yogurt in the dressing. The lettuce. The wine.

I am glad we signed up with Friends and Farms for the winter. Gets me into making new dishes, and expanding my recipe collection.

Now I need to pull the frozen corn from the freezer and make that soup soon.

hocofood@@@

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Decisions. Decisions.

Posted on February 3, 2014 by AnnieRie

CSA decisions, that is. Community Supported Agriculture. Something I believe in and preach to all who will listen.

There are so many excellent choices for fresh produce here in Howard County. Finding the best fit, and using it wisely, is the challenge.

We first joined a CSA, with Sandy Spring, when they offered pick up where we volunteered. They used an Amish cooperative. We loved them. Organic. Veggies mostly. Reasonably priced. Convenient.

They didn’t get enough people to continue beyond the first year. We switched to a Columbia pickup.

I have tried and liked two other CSAs in the area. But, I love Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, because I love the challenge. The really exotic veggies. Veggies outside that narrow box we used to work in.

When life gives you bitter melon, you learn. Celeriac. Chayote. Salsify. Jerusalem artichokes. Kohlrabi.

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I stay with them because I like that challenge.

This spring and summer I will be doing a bit different mix. A half share from Lancaster Farm Fresh.

Plus, an individual basket from Friends and Farms. Because I like their meat, eggs, dairy, bread and staple items mixed in the basket. A rotation of items that works for a couple.

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Who needs grocery stores if you can get fresh seasonal items from regional farmers, fishermen, butchers, and entrepreneurs.

How things have changed for us. Buying from local farms and using these locally based suppliers for the freshest, natural, seasonal foods.

hocofood@@@

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A Super Weekend

Posted on February 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

And it had nothing to do with a very boring football game.

I did make spicy wings to eat during the game. We actually ate in the dining room since only one team seemed to have shown up to play today.

The rest of the weekend, though, was really quite nice. Good to see warmer weather before our next round of snow and ice and whatever.

We got to England Acres to pick up filets for Valentine’s Day, and some goodies for dessert (plus one to take to an upcoming Conservancy planning meeting).

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Today we had our library wine tasting down at Linden. Postponed from that icy Sunday in early December, we got to savor some really lovely old wines as a treat for hanging in there with a two month delay.

Who would have thought that a 1993 Virginia Chardonnay could still be good? Not just good, but having “fruit” left and structure. We tasted four Chardonnays, and four Hardscrabble Reds.

The Chardonnays show us that you can make wines that age well here on the East Coast of the US. We tasted the 1993, 2002, 2009 and 2012. All from the Hardscrabble vineyard. We them moved to the reds. The 1992, 1998, 2006 and 2010 Hardscrabbles. Last, a comparison of the 1997 and 2004 Late Harvest Vidal Blancs.

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Ninety minutes, where we conversed, tasted, asked questions and learned quite a few new things from Jim Law, the owner/winemaker at Linden.

My favorite. The 2009 Hardscrabble Chardonnay. One immensely intense yet elegant example of poetry in a bottle.

My other favorite today. The 2004 Hardscrabble being poured in the winery by the glass. Paired with some surryanna ham, and black and blue goat cheese.

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Jim tells us he will be having more of these small events. No release party this year. The 2011 vintage, damaged by the late weather events (who can forget Irene and Lee?), meant no single vineyard reds that year.

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We also found out about the building of the new “man cave”. A joking reference to the structure being erected just behind the winery. A heated space to work on equipment, from the winery and for vineyard maintenance.

We picked up a few bottles of the last of the Seyval. It was ripped out this year, to make space for more cabernet planting. The terroir there is better suited for Cabernet. Interesting to hear the changes coming in the future.

On our way home, we stopped in at Delaplane Cellars, near Sky Meadows State Park. Let’s just say, I want to live with this view.

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Oh, and the wines are very nice, too. Impressed with their “cinq trois”.

Now, time to get ready for the snow.

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Easy Pea-sy

Posted on January 31, 2014 by AnnieRie

Pea Shoot Pesto.

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I wanted something interesting to do with the pea shoots we received from our weekly pickup at Friends and Farms.

After a bit of searching around the internet, and knowing that I am a sucker for pestos, I found numerous recipes for a pesto made using pea shoots.

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I messed around with them, as usual. And, reverted to my standard formula for pesto. I harvested almost all of the pea shoots. Got around three cups of them.

Toasted a mix of almonds, pecans and walnuts.

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About three ounces of them.

Set up the food processor with about three ounces of Parmesan, two cloves of garlic, salt and pepper.

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After I blended the Parmesan, I added the nuts and the pea shoots.

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As this was blending, I poured in the olive oil. Getting it to the consistency I wanted and tasting while adding a little additional salt and pepper.

The final product. About a cup and a half of pesto. A few dollops of it tonight on the last of the cod we received last week.

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The rest of it will get mixed with some pastas. Like those I bought at Secolari this week.

It really tastes like peas. You can make all sorts of pestos. Just be creative and experiment.

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Loving the Basket

Posted on January 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

Of Friends and Farms goodies. Here, in the dead of winter, it is nice to pick up some fresh veggies, like kale and onions.

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Besides these fresh veggies, we had apples and carrots in the bags at the pick up point.

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The carrots and those onions will be great in a slow cooker pot roast. We had a chuck roast this week, and some “processed” items.

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The tomato puree, with the chuck roast, carrots and onions will form the basis for a pot roast.

We got a piece of sharp cheddar cheese today. Matched with apples, a good snack or dessert.

I chose Maple yogurt this week. We also had cod in the bag, which became part of dinner tonight.

What am I missing? Oh yes, Breadery bread.

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This week I chose Montana white bread. To use for toast, and for a couple of recipes that need bread.

While I was there, I picked up a dozen eggs, and a half gallon of apple cider. It is nice to have extra items available to augment your basket.

Can’t complain at all. This is a great deal for getting fresh and flash frozen items to make it through the winter.

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