Category Archives: Locavore

And The Winner Is …

Posted on May 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

… Salad Mix. We got it eight times this spring. Followed by spinach and grapefruit. All three big ticket items if you bought them in a store or market and were looking for untreated or organic foods.

I always do a value added post. What I paid versus what I got. We paid $462 for twelve weeks of Breezy Willow early bird CSA. By a rough calculation we got over $500 worth of veggies, fruit, eggs and bread, if you use organic sources for veggies, and farmer’s market prices for bread and eggs. Citrus a little harder but this was prime Florida citrus, not inexpensive by any standard.

I used Wegmans online for most of the veggies. David’s, Roots, MOM’s and farmers markets could even be higher.

I have always maintained that if you want to eat fresh untreated healthy food, a CSA is the way to do it.

We got salad mix eight out of twelve weeks. Something everyone can relate to, and will probably eat. We got spinach seven weeks. These two simple yet yummy veggies were a mainstay in our house. Lunches and dinners. Stir fries and salad plates. It is easy to use these up.

What tastes better than fresh greens, eggs, mushrooms? So many days we indulged in lunches that we would have paid big bucks to enjoy in a restaurant.

If you ever considered a CSA, you should really do a little research and try one. We move around a lot and try many of them. Breezy Willow is definitely a winner. Check them out.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged CSA, farms, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, value of CSA, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

The End of the Road

Posted on May 22, 2013 by AnnieRie

Week 12 Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA. I will miss my Wednesday trips to the farm. This CSA is such a great value, and you get so much for your money. For us maybe, sometimes too much, but still it is one awesome CSA.

Today:

The biggest celery cabbage I have seen (and I took the smallest one there)
One humongous green romaine lettuce
Two pounds zucchini
Two sweet onions
One eggplant
One bunch asparagus
One bunch chard
One pound spinach (I picked the smallest ones to make salad)

Plus, either eggs or yogurt. I love Breezy Willow eggs and since this was the last week, I chose eggs.

And, the bread. Honey Whole Wheat. There will be egg salad made. And, deviled eggs to take to a picnic. Pure heaven is homemade egg salad with a great loaf of bread.

There is ratatouille in my future. I have some tomatoes in the freezer. We got onions, eggplant and zucchini. Sounds like the perfect fit.

Of course, for us, summer means farmers markets. And Glenwood is where I will continue to get Breezy Willow eggs and Great Harvest bread. Along with my TLV meats and Stone House baked goods.

Who needs grocery stores? Not us, well, except for staples like vinegar, sugar, beans and those other things we can’t find at markets.

hocofood@@@

10 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

In Glenwood It’s All Good

Posted on May 18, 2013 by AnnieRie

Saturday farmer’s market in Glenwood. I missed the first week but made it out there today. The market has three new vendors. One, Misty Meadows, had ice cream, milk and cheese.

Misty Meadows will be in Glenwood once a month, but for those craving fresh milk, they also come to the hospital market on Fridays. The other new vendor is Pleitez Produce, up from Montross VA. What is so great about having a VA farmer here is how early they get veggies in, compared to us. It is great because it lengthens the season. Today they had strawberries and rhubarb, and cucumbers and little greenhouse grown cherry tomatoes.

In this picture, Pleitez is behind Great Harvest. Great Harvest had those incredible croutons there today. The ones I picked up at Breezy Willow with my CSA the other day. I got some rhubarb and large spring onions from Pleitez.

The third new vendor is Thai Spices. I have already written about them from buying curries at Miller library market. They will be at all the markets.

I talked a while with RJ Caulder of Breezy Willow, and she said they are definitely adding more vendors to each market to make them more diverse. I see on the market web page that Elk Run Vineyard will be coming once a month in June July and August. Great to see the expansion of our markets.

I did a small amount of shopping. Cucumber plants to replace the ones the bunnies decided to sample.

We need to expand the bunny fencing as the little ones are squeezing through the deer fence. Today was a three bunny day.

Not very clear but then they were playing “Ring around the house” chasing each other all over the yard. Where is the fox when you need it? Seriously. They are getting into all my stuff even if they don’t like it. They chomp it off and leave it.

I got buttermilk cake to serve with berries and some of this lovely ice cream.

Misty Meadows sells small cups and quarts of their ice cream. I also bought bacon from TLV. Not a bad morning. I have now been to two of the five to see what Howard County markets have this year. Check them out.

I think next week I may hit the hospital market if my husband likes this milk as well as Trickling Springs. I only got him a 12 ounce bottle today to try.

hocofood@@@

Use Up the CSA Dinner

Posted on May 17, 2013 by AnnieRie

In honor of Food Revolution Day, which is today. I have collected quite a few of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks over the years, and like his approach to getting people to cook. I decided tonight to share a favorite “recipe” in order to take part (unofficially) in the festivities surrounding this global event.

Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows I love to cook. I enjoy doing new things with my CSA and farmer’s market finds, and we eat mostly home cooked made from scratch meals.

This is an easy favorite for us. One pan pasta “primavera”.

You need whatever veggies look good to you that could be roasted. This time I used kale, spinach, spring onions, red onion, diced red potato and TLV Tree Farm uncured bacon. I made the entire package of bacon over the weekend. In the oven, then put away to use. It probably made its way into five or six meals. For this recipe I used four slices, cut into square pieces. I just put all the veggies on a foil lined pan, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper and oregano. Put in a 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes, in order to get the onions and potato done.

Just before dinner I put four ounces of mixed pasta on to cook, and took out some pesto from the freezer, and those marinated mushrooms I made last week. Here is that recipe on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

I only have one more container of pesto in the freezer. Can’t wait for garlic scapes to come in, so I can start restocking for next winter. I had some greens left from the Burtonsville Market.

This is what dinner looked like. My husband’s plate. Filling, good, easy to throw together, with about two slices of bacon as the meat in this dish.

Pastas are simple standby meals around here. Tomato sauce or pesto from the freezer. A small amount of protein. Lots of veggies, either steamed or roasted. And, for us on a Tuesday night, it emptied the fridge of CSA veggies to make room for the Wednesday pick up.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Abbondanza – Spring Veggies Abound

Posted on May 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

CSA Week Eleven from Breezy Willow, a visit to Miller Library market and strawberries from Gorman. Who needs grocery stores in spring and summer around here?

We got:
Tuscan kale
Three beets (one is hidden)
Romaine (weighs two pounds)
Three pounds sweet potatoes
Half pound shiitake mushrooms
One pound green beans
One pound Brussels sprouts
One pound bean sprouts ( not there, I swapped)

My swap got me three more of those lovely grapefruit. Bread the Great Harvest White. This has become our favorite toast for breakfast. Reminds my husband of English muffins when toasted.

And, last but not least, those lovely eggs. This was the last delivery of eggs for early bird CSA.

I also picked up peach yogurt, Great Harvest croutons for salads and some chicken legs.

Before hitting the CSA I stopped at Miller Library market to get a few things. Like curry to use with the chicken.

Fresh veggies from Love Dove to pair with the strawberries. French breakfast radishes and arugula. I know, I know, there are holes in the leaves. I like seeing holes in the leaves. It means no bug died from chomping on pesticide infested veggies. If you want fresh veggies that haven’t been treated, look for holes or bugs (like corn with little happy worms).

Organic practices. Many of our local farms follow organic practices and give you fresher than grocery store items that aren’t treated or sprayed. For less money most of the time, too.

Got my feta for the salad from Bowling Green. Was looking for short ribs from TLV but will have to wait until Glenwood on Saturday.

Between the farm stands, markets and CSAs in Howard County, you can eat quite well using grocery stores for just a few staples.

Today while out, I did a loop. I had errands in Columbia so I hit Wegmans for coffee, lemons and limes, paper goods, and shrimp. Stopped at Gorman to check out the farm and get some berries. Headed up 29 and hit Miller library before continuing out to Breezy Willow. I have all I need for the vast majority of our meals, using locally sourced items.

Salads. Meats. Stir Fry. Side dishes. Dairy (now that Misty Meadows is at the county markets). Cheese. All readily available and really fresh.

Now, what am I going to make with these lovely shiitakes?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, Howard County, Locavore, real food, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Strawberries at Gorman Farm Today

Posted on May 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

I stopped by Gorman Farm today to say hi to Dave and check out the strawberries. I will have a long farm report in a few weeks once the farm stand opens but pick your own strawberries just began yesterday.

Check their facebook page to see what days they will have strawberries. Dave told me they might not be open some days to allow for more ripening for the weekend. There was a steady stream of visitors at 2 pm when I was there.

I didn’t pick today as I didn’t have the time to stay, and I would rather enlist my helper aka my better half to make picking go quicker. I did manage to pick up a pre-picked pint to use in a few salads since we got lots of greens in the CSA. Eight of them didn’t make it home though. This is what’s left when I got there.

So much better tasting than those institutional strawberries at the supermarket. As for other HoCo farms with berries, not ready yet. TLV Tree Farm told me maybe two weeks. Larriland also isn’t open. Their web site says something about late May. Cold weather will do that to you.

hocofood@@@

Wegmans, wordbones and howchow

Posted on May 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Say what? This title conveys my route to finding howchow and wordbones aka Dennis Lane. I am a foodie, and yes, a locavore, but still a foodie. Hunt Valley Wegmans was an amazing source of foods years ago, when we ran up and down I-83 to PA to visit my MIL.

Rumors that HoCo was getting a Wegmans sent me on a google search which led me to howchow. This post sent me to discover Tales of Two Cities, and all that lovely inside information Dennis managed to find.

I used howchow to find restaurants and checked out a few posts about Wegmans by Dennis. A year or so later, I started blogging. I approached howchow to get linked into his web site, and he graciously helped me with links and references. I owe quite a bit to him in getting me local readers last year.

I then met Dennis at my first hocoblogs party, and we talked about many mutual friends. A week later, after my spinal fusion, I was housebound, so I read his entire blog. WOW, what I learned about living here would fill a book!

Tales of Two Cities gave me more info about HoCo than any newspapers did. For me, though, having Dennis add me to his sidebar, and help me grow my locavore/retiree/west county blog was just one of those unselfish things HoCo bloggers like he and howchow did.

This little blogging community is simply awesome. We really care about where we live and what we do. Missing Dennis’ blog will be difficult for many. Missing his close friendship is something I won’t experience as he was a new friend, but I read in their blogs about the closeness of his friendships with my fellow bloggers and I see their pain.

From my little corner of the blogosphere, I think HoCo has many talented writers who will stand up and blog more to share things all of us love about living here.

The local bloggers are wearing red this week to celebrate Dennis’ life. I have nowhere special to go but here is my “red”.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, People and tagged commentary, community, Food, foodie, hoco loco, hocoblogging, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Early Bird CSA Week Ten …

Posted on May 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

… the drowning in greens week is here. In a good way, though.

Lots of greens in this week’s selection at Breezy Willow. We got:

half pound salad mix
one bunch rainbow chard
one pound spinach
radishes with greens attached
Zucchini (which I swapped for more radishes)
Asparagus
Spring onions
Three pounds red potatoes

Plus, I picked Great Harvest White Bread this week, and got my dozen eggs.

If that wasn’t enough, I stopped by Miller Library today for Thai foods and cheese, and was swayed into buying this peppery lovely arugula from Love Dove.

You can tell it isn’t sprayed or treated. Those little chomps by insects. I would rather have greens with holes than greens full of pesticides.

With all the greens that came today, I had to use up the kale from last week, as well as the chard from Burtonsville. So, I made a frittata.

A kitchen sink frittata. Throw everything in the cast iron skillet. First, onions, garlic and chard stems. Followed by kale and chard. Add eggs with parmesan, chicken stock, salt and pepper. Let it cook a few minutes then finish in the oven. Served with a mixed green salad and CSA supplied grapefruit.

It does look like we will be eating lots of stir fries and salads this week.

Lovely greens.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Opening Day Tomorrow!

Posted on May 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yes, the Howard County Farmers Markets open tomorrow at Miller Library at 2 pm. The first of five straight days of producer only markets. Three are at libraries. One at the hospital and one at a village center.

I have been going to our county markets since they first opened. Back when our local market was on Cedar Lane at the church. Of course, back then I also hit Clarks Farm produce stand on the way home, too.

There is nothing like freshly picked fruit and veggies, or fresh meat and dairy. It looks like we are getting a creamery back into the market to replace South Mountain leaving us. That means fresh milk.

I will be blogging about each market. I really intend to hit all five of them if I can, in their first two weeks of being open, just to see what they are offering this year.

Even though the weather is rainy and grey, spring is definitely here when the markets open.

Buy local. Support our MD, VA and PA farms in our surrounding area.

This year it looks like they are expanding to include producers of other items. I am intrigued to check out the Thai vendor.

And, of course, to get my Stone House Bakery fix.

See you there?

hocoblogs@@@

Burtonsville Farmer’s Market

Posted on May 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

Today we drove down to see what farmers are participating in the Burtonsville market. It is new this year, and started just two weeks ago. There were four farms today selling veggies, one selling meat and eggs, one selling sub sandwiches, one selling olive oil and Atwater’s selling bread. There were also local artisans selling candles, jewelry and other items. I was focused on the farms and didn’t check out the artisans.

Not tremendously crowded but there was a line for bread, and one for the fresh strawberries from one of the farms in Virginia. I had to get some.

The strawberries and asparagus were from Crazy Farm, in Warsaw VA. The chard and greens from Over the Mountain in Boonsboro, MD.

I also splurged on half of a Dark and Stormy Cake from Atwater’s. To serve for dessert tonight. An old neighbor is coming to enjoy the first of the lamb we got two weeks ago from England Acres.

Sausage from Orchard Breeze, too. We did talk to them about turkeys. They are considering doing parts as well as whole turkeys in the future.

If you live in the southern end of Howard County, this market is really quite close to you. Maybe five miles from Maple Lawn and Fulton. Using the back roads, it is 12 miles from us.

Remember, this week the Howard County Markets open. Look for lots of greens to be there. I can’t believe how beautiful the spring onions are, at the markets. I love throwing these on the grill and basting them with olive oil.