Category Archives: Friends and Farms

Strawberry Fields

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I can’t resist Larriland for strawberries.

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This year the fields are south of the main farm. The price went up. $2.75 and $2.25, up 16 cents from last year. We only picked 14 pounds this year. Well. at least so far this year. I might go out again later this month.

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Here’s to the first strawberry margarita of the season. One part Triple Sec. Two parts tequila. Six parts strawberry syrup, made using pure cane sugar to taste, and a couple of limes squeezed in. A handful of crushed ice. Blend. Enjoy with the salsa from the Ellicott City Market.

The rest of that juice.

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Poured in ice cube trays. Resting in the freezer as we speak. These cubes go into many things. Once they have frozen, I put them in a container in the freezer. Pop one in a glass of iced tea, or lemonade. Or make a sangria. Or, melt one to make a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette. I am just finishing up last year’s stash.

The best berries.

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Washed, stemmed, dusted with sugar. Frozen until solid. Packed away to come out in cold months. Defrost and make your own strawberry yogurt.

And, it figures. Saturday we saw we are getting strawberries from Friends and Farms. Today, our Lancaster Farm Fresh newsletter predicts strawberries, too.

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There can never be too many strawberries.

#hocofood

Fish On …

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… the grill.

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There is something about halibut. One of my favorite fish to grill. And we can’t go to Annapolis to visit family without stopping at Annapolis Seafood for something. It was a stop for shrimp but the halibut was calling my name.

The shrimp, also bought, was used today in a shrimp curry with Thai Spices Matsaman curry, fragrant with cumin and cardamom.

The halibut, grilled last night with some Friends and Farms vegetables.

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Asparagus and red potatoes.

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All seasoned with one of my pesto concoctions, defrosted from the freezer. This one was a mixed greens pesto, made last summer. Since it is almost garlic scape season, I need to finish off the last of the pesto containers from the basement freezer.

To complete that local flavor.

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Maryland chardonnay, from Big Cork.

Here’s to many more locally inspired and small business supplied dinners. It’s grilling season, big time.

#hocofood

Hanging Out at the Swap Box

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Or, how I’m spending my Thursday afternoons.

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The swap box is where you exchange an unwanted item from your produce delivery in Community Supported Agriculture. I expected that there would be weeks where Lancaster Farm Fresh (in my half share) and Friends and Farms (in my individual basket) would overlap.

I pick up my Friends and Farms basket first. We know in advance what we are getting.

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This week, the vegetables included spinach, red onion, red potatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb and collard greens.

Heading over to Columbia to get my LFFC box, I knew I was at least going to have some similar items. Our advance email told us the half share would be getting this.

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Half shares get four to seven items. This week there were five. Kale, green leaf lettuce, chives, red scallions and collard greens. I swapped the chives. That would be an obvious swap for me since this is what I have in the community garden.

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I think I could supply the 44 members of the Columbia pickup with their needs for chives, and then some. I usually swap herbs because I grow them.

I really wanted to find some lovely little Hakurei turnips. The full shares got them. But, no joy. I settled for another green leaf lettuce.

Besides the veggie share, I started my monthly cheese share this week. Every four weeks. Three varieties.

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The chevre. Raw milk cheddar. Sheep’s milk soft cheese.

After seeing the incredible cheeses last year in other people’s boxes, I sprung for cheese this year. I don’t regret it at all.

I also get three pounds of free range chicken every week. This week: one pound of boneless skinless chicken breast, and two pounds of chicken wings. I wrote about the wings yesterday.

Changing topics here, and returning to Friends and Farms. The protein this week. Cod and hanger steak.

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Just enough cod to make fish and chips one night. And, hanger steak. Hard to find as there is only one per cow. I never knew that before I started getting more unusual cuts of meat from Friends and Farms.

Bread and eggs this week in my individual rotation. And, as usual a few add ons.

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Butter, and plain yogurt. The butter, to make chive butter to freeze in cubes to use next winter. The yogurt. To make tzatziki with one of those cucumbers, and some dill from my garden.

All in all, a good start to the summer season, for eating regionally and seasonally. And it is still cool enough to do something with those collard greens. I seem to have an excess of them this week. There could be worse things in life. An excess of collard greens just means bring out the bacon.

#hocofood

Rhubarb on My Chicken Wings

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A marriage of one item from both of this week’s baskets. Rhubarb from Friends and Farms. Chicken wings from Lancaster Farm Fresh.

Tomorrow, after I recover from all the wonderful food, wine and beer at Wine in the Garden, I will talk more about the other items we got this week. But now, let’s just talk savory rhubarb.

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Last summer I made RhubarBQ sauce. This is the last jar of it.

There will be more of it made with the rhubarb we got today. I think I have enough to do half the recipe that’s on the link above.

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We also got two pounds of chicken wings.

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The chicken is an add on item in our Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA delivery.

What could be better for a lovely summer dinner? Grilled chicken wings served with a dip of savory tangy barbecue sauce that invites you to venture outside that strawberry rhubarb rut we fall into whenever we get rhubarb.

Believe me, this sauce is worth the time to make.

#hocofood

Markets, Farmstands, CSAs and Cooperatives

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Somewhere along the way during the past three years, I replaced the grocery store visits with fresh, regional, seasonal foods bought in four venues.

We started with vegetables and fruit.

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Sunday mornings at Olney, or Saturdays at Glenwood.

Add to that our visits to the local farmstands and local farms, for dairy, meat, cheese, bread and other goodies. As well as the veggies and fruit.

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You can go online and find year round open farm stands. Like England Acres, Breezy Willow or Copper Penny. I have been keeping track of the locations on my Farms page, and my local resource page.

There are at least six CSAs in this area. Some of them year round. Others, eight or nine months a year.

There are buying services. One, Friends and Farms uses regional suppliers. The other, South Mountain Creamery, delivers all sorts of items beyond milk, right to your door.

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Now, I have also expanded my garden.

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Add to that the pick your own sites, like Larriland, Butlers and Baughers.

It is pretty simple around here to replace grocery stores for most of what you eat.

Over these four years we have done just that. It took a while to find sources, but it is so satisfying to have really fresh foods. And we know the people that supply us with most of our food.

I just visited the new Ellicott City Farmers Market last Saturday. This is what I love most about farmers markets. The best things to buy and use.

I came home with two really great salsas. Some romaine. Radishes. Apples. A half dozen plants for my yard. I was tempted by the pizza, but had enough at home to pass it by this time.

I will be going back for more of that salsa.

Have you replaced the stores with your local businesses? The buy local challenge in July isn’t the only time to support your local farmers, vendors and small businesses.

#hocofood

Mangia Italiano!

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Italian feast. That’s what we can make with this week’s Friends and Farms basket.

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Within this basket is a serious baseline for “gravy” or as known here in the States, tomato sauce.

Tomatoes. An onion. Garlic. Carrots. Basil. Sweet Italian sausage. Mushrooms. Really, you can have one very interesting experimental session making your own version of an Italian staple.

But, you know you can add that Swiss chard.

As for other meals, this is my egg and bacon week.

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Eggs and bacon. There is probably not much else that just jumps up and makes us happy.

Well, maybe strawberries.

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We all got a quart of strawberries. This should do well with finishing off that yogurt I bought last week.

And, the chicken.

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This weekend. One spatchcocked grilled chicken coming up.

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I forgot! Those pea shoots. You know, I definitely love pea shoots. But, they have to be eaten soon.

Great Memorial Day basket! Time to get grilling!

#hocofood

Lunch From the Garden …

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… and a few regional farms.

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In the process of making lunch, the picture above shows some of the kale and chard from this morning’s thinning of the garden. Dressed with a simple yogurt dressing. Shake yogurt and lemon infused olive oil with some garlic powder, salt and pepper.

An apple from last week’s Friends and Farms basket, served with some of that provolone that we got, too.

Homemade peach yogurt.

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To share, we used one cup of plain yogurt. One defrosted peach, from my stash in the freezer (courtesy of Larriland picking last August). A 1/2 tsp squirt of agave. That’s all. I control the sweetness when I start with plain yogurt.

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This yogurt is available at Friends and Farms. At Breezy Willow Farm store. And at England Acres in Mt. Airy. Best yogurt we have ever found. No web site, as they are an Amish farm.

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As for the rest of this bag of peaches. Destined to become peach pops. Simple to make. Blend the peaches with yogurt. To fill my popsicle molds I need about 32 ounces in the blender. If I get a little too much, the rest goes in a small plastic jar and becomes frozen yogurt. I am using whatever I have to give it the amount of sweetness I want. Currently I have agave, but I also use honey or maple syrup.

On a related note, I harvested a few more white onions today.

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Including one very large one, that was too crowded in the middle of the rows.

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And found the beginning of an onion scape on the largest one. Now, I need to head back up there and pinch off scapes to let the onions put more energy into the onions and not the shoots.

Back on the home front, though, my garlic out in the back yard hasn’t begun to produce scapes yet. They are getting really large finally, so I hope to get at least one dozen large heads of garlic in a few months.

So far, a good start to the harvest of spring vegetables. Now, if only the strawberry picking season would begin. Gorman Farm projects that they will open Saturday the 24th of May. Larriland is still posting “late” May. We are almost out of the last of the frozen berries, and can’t wait to get out in the fields and bring in this year’s berries. The freezer is getting empty now.

#hocofood

A Tale of Two Providers

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Both of them awesome. The source now of most of what we eat. Well, with the exception of my garden, which will provide all kinds of goodness in the next four months.

Today, our Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA started up. For a 25 week summer season and a seven week fall extension. We dropped down to a half share because we still do Friends and Farms, and yes, we have a garden.

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The reason why we love this CSA. The diversity. Have you ever heard of Egyptian walking onions? Well, until today, neither had we.

Our half share included:
Green Kale
One pound of spring mix
Arugula (which was in the full share, but I swapped for it)
French breakfast radishes
Red scallions
Asparagus

The full shares got the purple asparagus. They had ten items in their share. They got microgreens in theirs.

I also signed up for the chicken share. Three pounds a week of free range, antibiotic and hormone free chicken. This week:

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Two chicken breasts and two legs.

Add to that bounty, the individual share from Friends and Farms. Between the two, we won’t be drowning in items and the portions are perfect for a couple.

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The complete deliverable.

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The sandwich steaks and provolone. Just what we need to make cheese steak sandwiches. The shrimp. Ten ounces in our individual basket. The small basket got twice that amount. Ten shrimp. Ten ounces. These are prime shrimp. There will be shrimp and grits, I think, to use up the last of the grits.

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The add on I picked up this week. Plain yogurt. I have plans for the yogurt. The special. Leftover ewe cream cheese for a sale price. I could spread this cheese on cardboard and love it. It is particularly good on specialty breads. I am also thinking of crackers with cheese and the last of my homemade pineapple habanero jelly.

The rest of the items in that picture above. Spinach, green onions, beets, hydroponic tomatoes, butter lettuce, bread and a couple of apples.

I really don’t need to touch a market or grocery store with this kind of variety coming to our home weekly.

Tonight’s dinner celebrated those sources. I was home alone as my better half is out for the evening.

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I covered a plate in spring mix. Sliced one of those hydroponic tomatoes, and added some basil from my garden. Shredded the end of the chicken from the last roaster (December delivery LFFC). Shaved a bit of Roots parmesan. And a scallion in the salad. I drizzled Newman’s Caesar dressing over it all. I was too lazy to make dressing with the yogurt today, but it will be made this weekend.

A glass of white wine, and what could be simpler for a meal?

Thanks to the regional deliverables of great ingredients, I had one of my fresh tasty meals.

#hocofood

Simply Spring: Onions

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A staple in my house. Year round. Those different colors, textures, and tastes. Spring onions.

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These onions are being harvested from my garden. To thin the white onions I planted a while back.

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I planted a set of 80 white onions. I know I don’t want 80 onions in August, so thinning them out in the early weeks, harvesting those spring onions, will leave me with a manageable amount of onions to cure.

I use a very large amount of spring onions in my cooking. In my salads. My soups. Stir fries. Frittatas. I buy them when I don’t get them in CSA baskets.

This week, besides what I harvest, I am getting them from Friends and Farms, and in my first Lancaster Farm Fresh basket. This is one item that I know will get used quickly.

I just never thought until I started gardening, about all the items we get from the process of growing vegetables.

Like the onions, spring is the season for microgreens. Thinning out those greens.

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Like my kale and chard. And the arugula out on my deck. Those little gems pack lots of flavor. They don’t go to waste.

Garlic scapes. Spring garlic. Pea shoots. I am now a firm believer in putting everything edible to a good use.

So, here’s to spring onions. I think I will let them shine this weekend. Grill them. Make them a star of a dish. Instead of a supporting player.

#hocofood

Scones, Scallions and Spice

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Busy week. Making scones for the first time. Harvesting spring onions in the garden, aka scallions. And, cooking with Indian spices tonight.

Let’s start with the scones. Made for the Mother’s Day event that was canceled. At least I only made the test batch before we got word that predicted heavy rains for today would make it potentially abysmal in the gardens. Turns out the rain was about an hour later than predicted, but we all know about those weather people. Not to be trusted, or believed. (Just kidding, it is hard around here to figure out the weather patterns).

As for those scones.

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Blueberries and peaches mixed with peach yogurt. Good peach yogurt from Pequea Valley.

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One cup yogurt and one cup fruit. I used defrosted blueberries and peaches, from my Larriland picking last summer. These were added to the other ingredients at the end. I started out with 3 cups AP flour, 1/2 cup cane sugar, 2 tbsp. baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda. One stick of very cold unsalted butter added to these and mixed until the texture of a cornmeal. Dump in fruit and yogurt. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Next, let’s talk about the garden, and the newly harvested scallions.

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I was thinning the white onions today. Took out three scallions that will grace the dinner table tomorrow. My first items this year.

Finally, the spice. The Indian inspired dinner.

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Spiced chicken with yogurt sauce. I started out with a recipe but didn’t really follow it at all.

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Except sort of, for the yogurt sauce. Easy to make. Big on taste. 6 ounces plain full fat yogurt. One lemon, juiced and zested. One tbsp. cilantro, chopped. Couple of shakes of ground ginger. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. Put on everything! This stuff is incredibly tasty.

I had leftover chicken breast, cut into cubes, or strips, or some of each. About 8-10 ounces of chicken. Made a dry rub. Tsp. of cumin. Tsp. of coriander. 1/2 tsp. of paprika. 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon. 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne. Two garlic cloves, minced. Lemon juice and zest. Salt and pepper. Mix with chicken, then cover in olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees (if it was already cooked chicken). With raw chicken, this would need 20 or so minutes at 400 degrees.

Serve with whatever bread you have to sop it up. I used the olive bread from The Breadery.

Serve it also with a wine that can stand up to the heat of the cayenne. I used a Traminette from Big Cork.

Let’s see what sort of goodies I can make tomorrow with those chicken thighs in last week’s basket.

#hocofood