Category Archives: Gardening

Farm Fresh Feasts

Posted on June 10, 2014 by AnnieRie

A great name that sums up my way of cooking. And, the name of the blog of one of my CSA “internet buddies”. We connected on line while commenting on CSA links at In Her Chucks. A blog that is inactive at this time. But, we still read each other’s blog, and make great foods using each other’s recipes. Trust me. She has the most amazing pizza page.

Kirsten stopped at Larriland a few days back, to pick up strawberries. Based on my recommendation of the place. And she made strawberry salsa. Really! I need to make this salsa. It looks like just what we need around here. More homemade salsa.

Today I got about a quart out at the community gardens. I worked my garden and picked a bit from a released garden, at the suggestion of our managers, to not let good fruit go to waste. Today was Food Bank day and we harvested and donated 35 pounds of food to Howard County. I was picking kale and chard and chives.

After that, I remembered we needed to pick those very ripe berries from the abandoned plot. Along with pulling out lots of weeds while up there. Now, I have almost enough to make that salsa.

As for farm fresh feasts, here is what you can make from those lovely fresh strawberries.

Salad with goat cheese and balsamic glaze.

Farm fresh feasts. The best way to eat.

#hocofood

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The Harvest Report

Posted on June 9, 2014 by AnnieRie

My first year keeping track of what I have harvested.

I am now keeping a notebook logging in the veggies and herbs that I harvest from my gardens.

The winner so far:

Scallions. Fifty four of them to date. Thinning out those onions has given me more green onions than I can quickly use. But, that’s a good thing. I use them all the time. The onions in the garden benefit from the thinning.

I also have a dozen spears of asparagus from my forage site. Less than other years, so far. Still, a little bit of asparagus will brighten up many dishes.

17 ounces of greens. Chard and kale, mostly. The row cover makes all the difference.

A dozen garlic scapes from my back yard. And a handful of spring garlic. Add some herbs for garnish. Like thyme, basil and dill.

All in all, not a bad haul for the first month.

Here’s to a very productive gardening season.

#hocofood

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Springtime Recipe Inspiration

Posted on June 7, 2014 by AnnieRie

I haven’t done a recipe round up in a while. With the explosion of late spring vegetables, I think I should gather together all my links to the dishes, desserts, salads, suggestions, etc. that I continue to mention in my CSA posts.

Like my garlic scape pesto. Here in the middle of the very fleeting garlic scape season. The simplest version combines a cup of scapes (cut in small pieces), a half cup freshly processed Parmesan, a half cup toasted pine nuts, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Put fresh Parmesan cut in chunks into food processor. Pulverize. Add scapes, mix. Add pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste, and drizzle oil in until you get the creaminess you want.

As for other things to do with scapes, grill them. Lightly oil them. Put on a really hot grill and keep turning them so they don’t burn. Season with salt and pepper before serving. They melt in your mouth.

Asparagus. Like the wild ones growing in my yard. They will turn green when you move the mulch. I like a simple dry grill method. Put in a basket. Dry grill for a few minutes. Just before taking them off the grill, brush olive oil on them and light salt and pepper them. Once on the table, shave Parmesan on them.

I also blanch them, then cut in small pieces. Make a simple egg/milk/herb/S&P mix and put into large non stick oven proof pan, lightly oiled. Once it begins to set up, dump the blanched asparagus on top, pick any grated cheese and put it on top and finish in the oven on 350 degrees.

I also put those blanched pieces mixed with any pasta, and a healthy spoonful of any pesto on top. Finish again with cheese.

Am I in a Parmesan rut or what?

Let’s move to strawberries and rhubarb.

Already wrote about that barbecue sauce.

I’ve made sweet desserts like crisps and crumbles, but can’t find all the recipes for them. The Food Network one was used at least once.

Kale. Chard. Greens. Nothing really fancy but lots of inspiration out there.

Kale chips are fun. Mess around with your favorite spices.

Also, that night I made one of my famous frittatas. Anything with that egg mixture, can be one light fresh seasonal awesome feast.

I suppose what I am saying here is this. Whatever is the freshest stuff you can find. Bring it home. Lightly treat it. Lots of olive oil, a little salt and pepper. My addiction to parmigiano reggiano.

Whatever.

It’s not yet corn, squash, zucchini or pepper season. Be patient and enjoy what has just been picked.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Food, Foraging, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, grilling, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Fresh Food Overload

Posted on June 5, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in too many sources of what came into the house today.

Friends and Farms. Lancaster Farm Fresh. Foraged asparagus. Harvested spring garlic and garlic scapes.

Is it any wonder I get overwhelmed. At least I didn’t pick veggies at Larriland today.

Scapes and spring garlic. Let’s start with the back yard. I have 18 plants out there. Two, I found to be waterlogged and a loss. Four I harvested today. They were too small to become heads of garlic. Hence, spring garlic. With a couple of scapes in the mix.

Asparagus. A couple more spears of my wild asparagus. There are two more ready to be harvested in a day or two. Not bad, but this year much less than previous years.

Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA. This is week three of the spring/summer CSA. I have a half share. Today eight items plus my weekly chicken share.

We got:

Salanova lettuce
Kale
Garlic Scapes
Frisee
Strawberries
Scallions
Red leaf lettuce
Yellow chard

A whole chicken this week. A Freedom Ranger heritage chicken.

The chard already made it into tonight’s frittata.

As for Friends and Farms.

This week was my eggs and yogurt week in the rotation. Proteins included chicken breast and a pork chop (destined to become an Asian element of a stir fry).

Green cabbage and carrots. There will be cole slaw.

That’s because we had a pork butt a few weeks back that is happily becoming pulled pork compliments of 100 days.

The rest of the basket included Asian greens, broccoli, scallions, hydroponic tomatoes, strawberries, and sweet potatoes.

I like getting small amounts of varied vegetables.

This method of shopping has been interesting, and a challenge to boot. Some days the large amount of greens is intimidating but it’s good for us.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Foraging, Friends and Farms, Gardening, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Fish On …

Posted on June 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

… the grill.

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.

Asparagus and red potatoes.

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.

Maryland chardonnay, from Big Cork.

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

#hocofood

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, grilling, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Hanging Out at the Swap Box

Posted on May 30, 2014 by AnnieRie

Or, how I’m spending my Thursday afternoons.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

It Takes a Community (garden)

Posted on May 27, 2014 by AnnieRie

I didn’t realize the social aspect of having a community garden plot. I really enjoy being able to stop and talk with fellow gardeners. Taking that break when you feel that weeding is way too hard in high temperatures.

There are always people up there. Some of them gardening. Some fulfilling their service hours.

Last year, the community gardeners donated over 1000 pounds of vegetables to the Howard County Food Bank. About 800 square feet of garden space in the plots is dedicated to the Food Bank Garden, and other gardeners donate their excess crops.

Every Tuesday morning is Food Bank harvest. This week they harvested greens, as it is still early in the growing season. I got there a little late, as I was caught up in family things. I missed them by a few minutes.

So, I puttered around. Fed my plants. Picked potato beetles off my cucumbers and zucchini.

Zucchini is one of those love-hate plants. Love them when they produce, and hate them when they over produce.

This year though, I have to admit, I inherited the Godzilla of chives.

Now, I love chive blossoms but these are out of control. I also have one amazing common sage plant.

Along with, believe it or not,

TOMATOES!

Early girl and supersweet 100s. Both have tomatoes on them.

Life is good. There are tomatoes in the future.

#hocofood

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Markets, Farmstands, CSAs and Cooperatives

Posted on May 26, 2014 by AnnieRie

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.

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.

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.

Now, I have also expanded my garden.

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

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Lunch From the Garden …

Posted on May 20, 2014 by AnnieRie

… and a few regional farms.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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Sure Signs of Spring

Posted on May 18, 2014 by AnnieRie

Around here my favorite sign of spring is the blooming of two of my plants.

The rhododendron. Every winter I try and protect them, to whatever extent I can. This year, the deer decided to chomp on one of them. The snow cover prevented them from eating on the ground, so they chewed up the bottom of one of these plants, as well as a few evergreens.

Thankfully, they did OK overall. The other two are a darker color.