Category Archives: Local Businesses

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

Leave a comment

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.

Strawberry Fields

Posted on June 3, 2014 by AnnieRie

I can’t resist Larriland for strawberries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There can never be too many strawberries.

#hocofood

4 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged CSA, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, 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

Leave a comment

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.

Inspired By

Posted on June 1, 2014 by AnnieRie

The Ellicott City Farmers Market.

Just a simple salad. Baugher’s strawberries. Breezy Willow arugula. Shepherd’s Manor Ewe Cream Cheese. What you can do after a quick walk up Main St. on a Saturday morning.

What would you pay for a salad of this freshness at a restaurant? Not the small amount necessary to make this one.

We bought a quart of strawberries (OK, two quarts). They were $5 a quart if you bought two. The cheese.

$7.50 at the market. Sheep’s milk cheese. To. die. for.

Arugula. $2 for 1/4 pound. We bought half a pound because I love it.

Breezy Willow’s organic veggies are awesome, to say the least.

We added a simple cream dressing. This was Newman’s creamy Caesar.

You could make at least six salads with what we bought. $16.50 total in cost. We are greatly enjoying the bounty from the market.

As for dinner that night.

I grilled those Lancaster Farm Fresh wings and served them with that rhubarb sauce.

And the wine. From the Wine Bin.

How great to have wine right next to the market. The better to complete your meal choices.

I could get used to finding Saturday dinners at this market.

#hocofood

3 Comments

Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Commentary, Community, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged commentary, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Strawberry Season

Posted on May 24, 2014 by AnnieRie

Officially opened today at Gorman Farms. You do have to check to see when they are open. They had some hail damage.

As for us, we got strawberries Thursday from Miller Farms in our Friends and Farms basket. They are also open for those who live south of us.

These berries made it into three different meals already.

Strawberries with greens. Such a simple great salad. I used arugula, romaine and the pea shoots from our baskets. A very easy yogurt dressing. Scallions from my garden.

The second use.

Berry yogurt. Besides some of the strawberries, I used a few defrosted blueberries. The plain yogurt from Pequea Valley. A little agave for sweetness. That small care package in the fridge went with my husband for his 12 hour shift in an amateur radio contest. A few hardboiled eggs, and some penne pasta I made the other day.

The last of the strawberries from Thursday? I ate them. What can I say. I love fresh berries.

Besides Gorman, there are other pick your own farms around here. Depending on where you live, you can find one not far away.

Like Larriland, or Baughers in Westminster, or Butlers Orchards in Germantown. They are all saying early June opening.

Berries are a fruit that we enjoy picking. Our freezer was stocked with berry syrup cubes, and frozen berries.

We will as usual go out to Larriland and pick at least 20 pounds. You can’t beat the price.

#hocofood

Leave a comment

Posted in Day Trips, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

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

Leave a comment

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

A Tale of Two Providers

Posted on May 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

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.

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:

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.

The complete deliverable.

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.

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.

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

1 Comment

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

Themed Baskets

Posted on May 8, 2014 by AnnieRie

The latest thing in our weekly baskets. Foods that will work together to make a meal. Not just random, ripe, in season veggies, but well thought out combinations for exotic dinner ideas.

Sort of like Food Network and Chopped.

This week: we could do Indian or Middle Eastern foods easily.

These are the contents of our small basket from Friends and Farms.

The ideas? Butter chicken. Spiced kabobs. Chorizo, eggs and asparagus. Ribs with peach yogurt barbeque sauce. Or with peppers and onions. Lots of recipes on the web site to tempt us, too.

The proteins, to start. Eggs, chorizo, chicken thighs and country pork ribs. Dairy, this week, peach yogurt and the small container of plain yogurt. To make those Indian inspired sauces and marinades.

We were supposed to get tomatoes, but a last minute change due to availability gets us tomato puree, perfect to use in marinades and sauces.

Onions. Peppers.

As in seriously sized peppers.

White potatoes. Cameo apples. Broccoli. Cilantro (again, great in so many recipes).

And the bread. Kalamata olive and rosemary. One of my favorites from The Breadery.

I am having a difficult time deciding what to make first. I think there will be spiced kabobs soon, though.

One of the broccoli crowns was steamed to use with dinner tonight. And, the peach yogurt will go two places. Scones for the Mother’s Day tea (on Saturday) at the Conservancy. The rest. In peach pops. Warm weather makes me crave peach pops.

Yogurt pops are simple. Any flavor yogurt. Appropriate fruit. Blended together with a splash of simple syrup. Tomorrow, I am using defrosted Larriland peaches, and the peach yogurt we got today. I bought my cute little pop sticks at Casual Gourmet in Glenwood.

Hey, the temps are in the 80s around here. Time to think about summer food.

#hocofood

Leave a comment

Posted in CSA, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Market Season Opening Thursday

Posted on April 30, 2014 by AnnieRie

The East Columbia Farmers Market opens May 1st. 2-6 pm at the East Columbia branch of the Howard County Library.

Independent now, since the market was dropped by the Howard County Farmers Market Association, they worked through all the paperwork necessary to keep the longest running farmers market in the county alive.

I know from their facebook page that three of the vendors will be there. Ungers Fruit, Orchard Country Produce and Tomatoes Etc. Tomorrow we will find out who else will join them.

I will be there sometime to browse through the many varieties of herb plants that Tomatoes Etc. always has. It is where I get quite a bit of what grows in my herb gardens.

Spread the word, that there will be a market in East Columbia this year again, on Thursdays. As well as the market on Sundays at Oakland Mills.

Other markets opening soon include Miller Library next Wednesday, HoCo Hospital on Friday, and Ellicott City Market which will open May 10th.

Add to those the Sunday market in Burtonsville, Saturday market in Silver Spring and at White Oak School in Silver Spring. The Wednesday and Sunday markets in Catonsville open soon too.

Yes, it is spring and the farmers markets are back. Head out to your old favorites or visit a few new ones.