Category Archives: Food

Making Mozzarella

Posted on April 22, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yes, you can make your own mozzarella. It gives you a great treat if you are missing the lovely soft mozzarella from South Mountain Creamery. All you need is milk, rennet, citric acid and salt. I got my recipe here. My first venture into cheesemaking. I halved the recipe.

I had a half gallon of fresh raw milk. Friends with cows are wonderful to have. I am doing a swap. Garlic scape pesto from my garlic next month for the milk to make cheese.

Bring milk with citric acid solution to the proper temp. Add the rennet solution and let it rest off the heat. It will begin to look like this. Mine took longer than ten minutes.

We have curds and whey. Not quite firm in the pic, but they got there. Curds being firmed up in the microwave.

After two 30 second cycles in the microwave, I added the salt and started to massage it and stretch it.

It needed another 30 seconds microwaving to get to the right temperature. I also lost my photo assistant to lawn cutting, so no pics of the stretching cheese. Here is the final product.

Fresh raw whole milk makes a softer creamier cheese. 2% milk, not ultra pasteurized supposedly makes the shinier white more solid version. It will be served tonight with venison steaks, for my local meal. Pics of the chilled sliced cheese later tonight or tomorrow.

I was surprised at how easy it was. Now, I need to figure out what to do with a large amount of whey. I hear I should use it instead of water in grains, soups, couscous, stews, and that it freezes well. I have about 50 ounces of whey in the fridge. More experimentation this week.

You know you’re a locavore when you make your own cheese. Next project, maybe a simple goat cheese with herbs. We know people with goats.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Locavore, Real Food, Sixty@Sixty and tagged Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Triadelphia Lake View Farm

Posted on April 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

The farm just down the road a piece. Closest to us, and a source of meat, eggs, plants, Christmas decorations, and veggies.

TLV Tree Farm. Known to many Howard County residents as the Christmas Tree Farm, where years ago we discovered the farm when we bought our first town house. Now known to much of Howard County as one of the farms at four of the five Farmers Markets in the county. They come to all the market days except the Thursday market.

You can go to the farm any Saturday in the winter and pick up meat, and sometimes there are eggs and Bowling Green Farm cheese in the fridge. They are open 10-2 every Saturday. I tend to stop there when I need something for a weekend dinner.

Just drive up to the farm and if no one is in the store, they have a number to call to get someone from the house. They have been farming in the county on these 100 acres for generations.

The farm house sits at the intersection of Triadelphia and Triadelphia Mill Roads. A pleasant back roads drive from Clarksville, using Triadelphia Mill, or from Columbia using Homewood, Folly Quarter, Triadelphia, what I call our direct route to Harper’s Choice. Easily accessible from Rte. 32 also.

The farm has U pick strawberry fields in the spring. Pumpkin picking, a corn maze and fall activities in October. And, of course, the Christmas tree cutting.

If you have the chance, check out their products at the markets, and then go visit the farm. Only three weeks until the 2013 markets open. TLV is present at Miller Library, Howard County Hospital, Glenwood Library and Oakland Mills markets.

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Sharps at Waterford Farm

Posted on April 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

Continuing my series about local farms. Today is opening day at Sharps greenhouses, for flower, herb and veggie gardeners who want a great selection of plants. Plugs, pots and flats.

I first discovered this farm about seven or so years ago when we were volunteering at Dayton Days. We went there to pick up 150 miniature pumpkins for children to decorate. Driving down the heavily rutted gravel road, we entered that magical rural atmosphere. No other homes to see, just the farmstead and the Sharps’ new home on the hill. I have been back many times since, to buy fall flowers and produce, to bird watch with the Howard County Bird Club, to hear Denise speak to the Legacy Leadership Institute, and now twice to buy my heirloom tomato plugs. The history of the Sharps and the farm is here.

Denise is amazing. I swear she is the queen of multi-tasking. She built up this huge wholesale business supplying plants to master gardeners, scout troops, nurseries, farm stores, and more. This is the place to go for starting your garden. With their high tunnels, greenhouses and cold frames, there are large amounts of seedlings for sale. She is open Tuesday through Saturday until June for plant purchases.

When I arrived today, the sheep were grazing in the rolling hillside above the farm buildings. As you can see above, there also was a visit from Montgomery County schools, first graders. They were coming through the greenhouses in small groups to see the plants, smell the basil and learn about growing vegetables. The road is not for low slung vehicles, or for anyone with a need for speed.

Once down the road, you can see the old farmstead on the facing hillside.

When I left, the school children were off on a tractor pulled wagon to see all the sites on the property. Sharps Farm is easily accessible off of Rte. 97, just north of the Montgomery County line. Take Jennings Chapel Road west for about a mile to the sign and the turn.

As you can see, I got a good start on my heirloom tomato growing. Plus a few hybrids. My new varieties this year are Box Car Willie and Paul Robeson.

And, I greatly expanded the supply of Amish paste. My workhorse from last summer. I went from four plants to a dozen. Making tomato sauce to can and freeze will be a priority this summer. Here are some of the tomatoes from the seedlings I bought last year. The Amish paste are on the left.

Take a trip out to the farm to look for your plants this season. Or, put it on your to-do list to visit on an open house day, or come back in the fall for the corn maze, pumpkins and other events.

hocofood@@@

Early Bird CSA Week Seven

Posted on April 17, 2013 by AnnieRie

Lots of greenhouse and high tunnel goodies this week. Things we crave, and now due to the proliferation of high tunnels and greenhouses, are ready to harvest early in the season. Breezy Willow delivers the freshest goodies, as always.

We got:

3 grapefruit
3 pounds red potatoes
1/2 pound salad mix
1 pound spinach
2 pounds zucchini
1 pound green beans
1 bunch beets with greens
1/2 pound mushrooms

We had a note this week about the citrus. It seems oranges were adversely affected by the cold weather this winter in Florida, so our citrus was limited to grapefruit.

I also picked a big parmesan sourdough bread from Great Harvest, and we got the dozen eggs. These are from Nature’s Yoke. I do miss the pretty colored eggs from Breezy Willow, but with the size of the CSA, they have to use eggs from more than one farm.

They still taste wonderful, and have those lovely deep yellow yolks.

I already put some of the spinach in tonight’s dinner.

Spinach, along with the rest of the bean sprouts from last week, some onion, garlic, ginger, water chestnuts, sesame oil and soy sauce. Served with sweet spicy spare ribs from Boarman’s.

I am loving these beets.

I dry roasted last weeks, and they went into salads. This week, I will probably do the same, as beets with spinach and cheese, and vinaigrette made using my frozen fruit. Yum! Doesn’t get much better.

The green beans and red potatoes will become a lunch salad.

As for the bread, this parmesan sourdough is dense and chewy and really tastes wonderful. If it does cool down this weekend, I am making a stew and sourdough dipped in gravy is heaven!

I already ate the crusty end with dinner tonight. Love fresh bread with butter.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

In Search of Seedlings

Posted on April 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

The primary objective this week. Get my seedlings and veggie plugs to be ready to plant the garden in about three weeks. I will be going to two farms, and hitting Earth Day at the Conservancy to achieve this.

last year’s tomatoes

I will add these two farms to my farms series after I get there, Sharp’s at Waterford on Friday and TLV Tree Farm on Saturday.

I will be getting heirloom tomatoes and also cucumbers at Sharp’s. Love their extensive selection of heirlooms. I will get all my herbs from TLV, except for that African blue basil, which will come from Greenway at the farmer’s market in May.

As for Earth Day, the Master Gardeners bring veggie and flower seedlings to the Conservancy to sell. I got some awesome heirlooms last year from them.

Add to all these seedlings, the ones in my window at home.

Kale. arugula and mesclun.

Thelma Sanders squash, including two that took weeks to germinate (slow metabolism maybe?). There are nine seedlings now. I am giving a few to friends to grow, as nine squash plants would take over my garden.

The organic garlic is going gangbusters.

Oh, and this was just for fun.

Starting ruby chard in an egg carton. These will get transplanted all sorts of places, to see where they do the best. Chard is so beautiful, you can use it as an accent plant, and then have it for dinner.

Getting that green thumb itch, and waiting until after the last chance of frost to move it all outside.

hocofood@@@

Rediscovering #mdwine

Posted on April 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

After that amazing twitter taste off from the Drink Local Wine conference yesterday, where comments and pictures kept popping up on twitterific, I thought I need to pay more attention to what is happening in our own backyard here in Maryland. We had pretty much abandoned Maryland until Black Ankle came along and reignited our interest.

Today we went off on the first of many day trips to see what has popped up around the area. I love Chambourcin done right, and all comments told us to try Port of Leonardtown.

To make this a multi-leveled event, this week for my eat local challenge we had a theme “WAY OUT THERE”. So, why not a drink local post instead of eating locally. We paired local cheese from Brandywine MD with local chambourcin to have lunch outside the winery.

We now need another road trip to check out the farmstead where this cheese originated. It was excellent as were the dry chambourcin rose and the chambourcin. We brought home some of these lovely wines to enjoy this spring and summer.

And, yes, there will be a taste off between this late harvest vidal and one of our bottles from Linden VA. MD vs VA. Let the rivalry keep all our winemakers on their game to continue to produce beautiful wines.

Glad that the Drink Local Wine conference in Maryland showed us that MD is up and coming as a wine region. Being a locapour and a locavore is not a bad thing. Besides, Wine in the Woods and Wine in the Garden should keep us busy next month.

Been to any good local wineries lately? If not, you should!

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Posted in Day Trips, Food, Locavore, Sixty@Sixty, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged day trips, howard county conservancy, Locavore, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Checking Out Greenfest

Posted on April 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Another of those spring rituals. Going to the Greenfrest at Howard Community College. Looking for plants, and picking up a few items of interest from the displays. As usual, there was a large enthusiastic crowd there this morning, and lots of greenery for sale.

The fest takes over the quad, the parking area, and two floors inside the Burrell Galleria. Lots for families to do, outside and inside. The Howard Astronomical League was outside with scopes, there were family activities outside, and food for sale.

I only had an hour there today as we had a conflict with a dinner engagement and I needed to get food ready to take to it. Still time to pick up another reusable bag (like I need more shopping bags!). A few brochures, and then out to the Master Gardeners area.

They were doing a brisk business in native plants, but I was looking for heirloom veggies. I will have to wait until Earth Day at the Conservancy to get those. Great to find out from them that our master gardeners have so many places for us to find really good starter plants.

I then headed off to see TLV where I wanted some greens and some short ribs. A request from my husband for me to do short ribs over the collard greens from this week’s CSA. TLV did not disappoint. I came home with short ribs.

They were doing a very good business, already sold out of all the basil plants they brought. Many more herbs available. I will be heading out to the farm in two weeks to get mine. Just in time to plant.

Many of their customers were commenting on how good it was to see them, and how we all can’t wait for the Howard County Farmers Markets to start in just 3 1/2 weeks. Keep checking their website and facebook pages to see the lists of vendors when they get posted.

Notice all those lovely containers of greens. Quite a few of those were sold as I was there talking to them. This is a great way to have fresh microgreens on the table. I use window boxes outside my kitchen, but these tubs would do great on a porch, or a deck, keeping leafy goodness out of the reach of bunnies and deer.

On my way out, I saw that a number of bikes were being loaded onto the trailers for the bike collection.

It was a beautiful breezy spring day, and it looked like another successful event in this, its sixth year. Driving home through Columbia and across Folly Quarter, I couldn’t miss all the flowering trees and shrubs. At home, the cherry tree is in full bloom. I need to pop out tomorrow and see how the azaleas are coming at Brighton Dam. It should be a sunny but cool day, perfect for a ride.

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, Weather and tagged community, crock pot cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, nature, spring flowers, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Breezy Willow Farm, In West Friendship

Posted on April 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

I know I first encountered Breezy Willow at the Glenwood Farmer’s Market, but I don’t remember when. The market was small when we first moved out here, but as a Saturday market it was easy to attend while we still had day jobs in DC. I buy quite a few veggies from them on Saturday mornings and still do much of my purchases of items I don’t grow in my garden from their stand. Things like the sweet corn, the radishes, the summer squash, peppers, and more. And, of course, their lovely free range eggs.

market closing day 2012

Breezy Willow offers all sorts of items, including eggs, honey, breads, soap, herbs, rare veggies, and fruit. They are a certified organic farm. Here is a very detailed description from their website.

Besides, who can resist the alpacas? And, the sheep, the chickens, the dog, any or all of them will greet you when you pick up your Community Supported Agriculture “basket” in the farm store. Visits weekly to the farm really do create that connection between us and the source of our food.

They also make and sell other goodies, like handmade jewelry, alpaca scarves and socks, felted soap balls, scented soaps, the list goes on. It is truly a labor of love on a family run farm. I love to buy the soaps to give as Christmas gifts.

RJ, Ken, Casey and Jason are all out and about. You may run into them at the markets, on the farm, and CSA pick up points beyond the farm. The farm does offer work for your CSA options, for those who staff the CSA pick up points, or the market. They work for their share, instead of paying for it.

This is an incredibly popular CSA in the county, one that has been adding pick up sites every season, and now has more than 700 members.

For the summer and fall CSA, which runs 24 weeks, starting in June, the vast majority of your items come from surrounding farms and from Breezy Willow. They do bring in goodies like mushrooms from PA and a few farms are outside of the county. To me, that is a good thing.

The success or failure of CSAs depends on happy customers. Some people are leery of taking risk if weather could wipe out part of a harvest, and the only source of their veggies is one farm. By diversification, and use of a cooperative venture among small regional farms, CSAs like Breezy Willow are a very good value for those looking for healthy foods to serve themselves and their families. The diversification mitigates some of the risk, and by paying up front for your future “shares”, you assist the farm in getting cash flow in spring when they need it for planting. It is a good thing for both sides of the transaction.

In the early spring, Breezy Willow added an “early bird CSA” a few years ago. It runs 12 weeks from March through May, and supplements cold storage fruit and vegetables with greenhouse grown, high tunnel grown, and some shipped in items from the South. Items like fresh Florida citrus at the height of the Florida growing season. For those of us weary of winter and ready for spring, this CSA gives us really fresh outstanding veggies and fruit from small farms along the coast. I can’t wait to see if we get some early berries from Carolina or Virginia.

Breezy Willow also works with the other farms in the area to offer their dairy products, and meats out at the farm. I am partial to the yogurt, and if they have Bowling Green Farm feta in the fridge, I grab it. The farm store was open on Saturdays this spring from 10-2, and is open for CSA members on CSA pick up days.

Now that they have added an extension to the farm store building, we were told that the CSA will pick up in the extension and the farm store will take over the entire original section.

If you want a real treat find out what flavors of ice cream are in the cooler. My personal favorites, salted caramel, honey graham and maple bacon. Yes, maple bacon ice cream. The sweetness of maple with the saltiness of tiny pieces of bacon.

If you get the chance, check out the farm on one of their open days. Call ahead if there isn’t a notice on the web site. You can see what they offer by browsing on the site, and if you want to order, they will arrange a convenient pick up time.

You can’t miss them on Old Frederick Road (Rte 99), just west of Rte. 32 and the West Friendship fire station.

Or, stop by when they begin their participation in the Glenwood Saturday market at the library and community center parking lot. Last year, they started selling in early June, once they had a good supply of veggies to bring to market.

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Week Six of the Breezy Willow CSA

Posted on April 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

Tomorrow I will be writing about the farm, today was CSA pickup day.

Week Six. Halfway through the Early Bird. I know why people love this CSA. The trip to the farm alone is worth it. The sheep need shearing! It was 88 degrees up there!

This week we got some new items. I know this value added CSA for early birds brings some items in from farms further south of here, but I have no problem with that as I get very fresh veggies that haven’t been sprayed or transported thousands of miles from foreign countries.

We got:
1/2 pound salad mix
1 pound bean sprouts
1 pound brussels sprouts
2 pounds beets
1 bunch rainbow carrots
3 pink grapefruit from Florida
1 bulb garlic
1 pound collard greens
1 bunch radishes
1 dozen eggs
Toasted Sesame Seed Bread

We could have swapped eggs for cheese, and of course, there were at least six different bread choices out there. I already used some bean sprouts with the last of the spinach, the last of the sugar snap peas, some garlic and onion to make a stir fry for dinner tonight.

I will be making pesto. Sort of like this one. I will be using the carrot greens, the radish greens, some basil from my windowsill pots, and maybe some of my baby arugula from my seedlings in the patio doorway.

basil growing on the windowsill

The picture directly above is my starter tray that contains arugula, kale and mesclun. If I thin out the arugula, it will add a touch of that peppery bite. If I wait only three or four days to make this, I will also have enough mint in the pots out on the deck to add. Pesto just needs that ratio of greens mixed with the nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil. I started experimenting using this post about not wasting food as a starter.

I also picked up a container of blueberry yogurt today, to mix with some of my Butler Orchard blueberries picked last summer and frozen. I am using these berries in all sorts of things.

Spring is definitely here. My cooking will be getting lighter. More salads and less stews. Grilling quite a bit, too. This week’s basket will easily get consumed with little leftover. We already started nibbling those gorgeous radishes as an appetizer tonight.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, gardening, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The Sunday Night Eat Local Report

Posted on April 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

It’s Sunday, the day our small group of bloggers puts up our latest meals made using mostly local ingredients, bought from farms and artisans in our 100 mile radius.

As for the farm reports, which I am working also, I hope to do at least two farms a week, and make them part of my Eat Local Challenge. They will be spaced out to take advantage of visits once they open for the spring and summer seasons.

Tomorrow I will talk about Clark’s and later this week, Breezy Willow. Clark’s just opened their Elioak site last week, and I stopped by today to see how they were doing. Busy, busy, busy. As I said, more tomorrow, but how can you resist such a beautiful scene?

Today I want to showcase some local foods from my Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA, which found their way into dinners the past two nights.

And, since wineries are farms, too, I will touch on the wines from VA that made their way to the table.

Friday night stir fry.

The Napa cabbage, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, onions and spinach all came from Breezy Willow. The Canadian bacon in there came from Orchard Breeze Farm in PA, bought at the Olney indoor winter market. Orchard Breeze raises Berkshire hogs. This bacon made its way into many meals the past few days. The Japanese sweet potatoes that you see in the pan came from my fall CSA, Sandy Spring, which uses Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, a nonprofit Amish coop from PA (80+ farms). I divide my CSAs between the two, using the strength of each one to keep me in fresh foods most of the year.

Looks good, doesn’t it? The shrimp came from the new Harris Teeter in Marriottsville, and the noodles are from Nature’s Yoke. I picked them up in the farm store at Breezy Willow when I got my CSA.

Served with one of my favorite wines for slightly spicy dishes. Since this dish also included some of the red peppers from the olive bar at Harris Teeter, some garlic from last week’s CSA, and grated ginger (another Harris Teeter purchase), it had a little kick to it. Enter Linden Vidal Riesling, a slightly sweet yet acid balanced white perfect for Asian styled foods.

I include Linden and his wines in my farm categories, as if you ever meet the owner of Linden, Jim Law, he will introduce himself as a farmer. To him, growing the grapes and tending his land is extremely important in the success of his winery.

Last night we had another local meal. Venison tenderloin. From my stash of venison. The farm across the way from us. My neighbor helps them in herd management and we got one of them for the cost of processing. This was the tenderloin, a prized part and one that demands careful handling.

I did a dry rub with RubJoeMeat. I can’t explain it. Read it on their web site if you really want to know. Trust me, though, it is a great rub for beef and for venison. I found the recipe to use for the tenderloin here.

I did not use a BBQ sauce, I made my own sauce from my berry vinaigrette, local PA maple syrup, balsamic, cinnamon and cayenne. Grilled it on that lovely evening yesterday.

The sweet potato is from last week’s CSA. The salad made with eggs, spinach, mushrooms, onions, all from Breezy Willow, the last of the bacon from Orchard Breeze. Perfectly cooked venison, not tough or gamey at all.

It looks great, doesn’t it? I will definitely use that web site again, for other venison recipes. As for the wine last night, I mentioned wanting to use a really good wine, and decided on a very old lovely Barboursville Octagon. From 1998, as a matter of fact.

Luca Paschina makes exceptional wines near Charlottesville. And he is one of the sweetest people to talk to, we spent 15 minutes in a buffet line at RdV last fall talking about his winery and his love of Virginia, coming here from Piemonte to be the winemaker at Barboursville.

1998 was the vintage year for the third edition of Octagon. Beautiful wine, that stood up to the venison and had that smokiness that matches grilled food so well.

You don’t have to buy imported wines, or food shipped halfway around the world to have first class meals. This weekend we celebrated the arrival of spring, using some of the best in the area.

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