Category Archives: Real Food

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@@@

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.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, farms, grilling, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

From Farm to Freezer – Larriland

Posted on April 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

I don’t remember when I first heard about Larriland Farms, in Lisbon. They have been there for 50 years, ever since they sold their Guilford farm which became part of Columbia. They started the pick your own farm ten years later in 1973. We rarely got out there, until we moved here to west Howard County.

Now, they are just up the road.

I was there for opening day of strawberry season in 2012. School was out that day and lots of families with their children were having fun picking strawberries.

This was the year we picked strawberries and blackberries, and visited a few times to pick up goodies in their farm store. You don’t have to do all the work, you can just stop in and buy already picked delicacies. I picked almost 10 pounds of strawberries. You get the price break at twenty pounds.

If you don’t have a garden and want to freeze veggies or fruits, this is the place to go. The Moore family runs the farm. It is so organized, and the fruit is amazing quality. Plus, they encourage noshing while you pick. This is close to ten pounds of strawberries.

What did I do with them? Besides the fresh salad that day for lunch?

Whole strawberries, strawberry puree frozen. I put the puree in wine, or club soda, or sangria. The jars I use to make berry vinaigrette. The frozen whole berries I drop in smoothies or juices. Same with the blackberries. This year, though, with my smaller garden I am looking to pick veggies. Can’t think of a better place to spend a few hours. I have begun monitoring their website to see when the 2013 season will start.

Follow their site, or sign up for email newsletters. Anyway you look at it, these lovely fruits could be in your freezer.

hocofood@@@

England Acres

Posted on April 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

One of my favorite farms to visit. I am going to profile local farms, why I shop at them and what they offer. I first found England Acres during a visit to South Mountain Creamery and Wegmans in Frederick. Driving home the back way I ended up going through New Market on Rt. 144 and found a sign.

I never got back to check it out until June 2012. It was love at first sight. The house is one of those very old farm places that kept expanding as the family grew, and the market was just next to it. I fell in love with the house.

Judy runs an amazing business. Partners with lots of local farms and artisans. If you want really good farm raised meat, or free range eggs, this is the place to go. How about duck eggs? They just starting selling those for a local farm. They have all sorts of sources. Cheese, yogurt, spelt flour, homemade baked goods. You name it. She works to bring it in and make it available. I love the fact that they are open year round, and that they really do support small local farms.

In February, Super Bowl weekend, I found.

Popcorn and cookies.

Salad mix and mushrooms.

The meat is amazing. Chicken soup from their chickens. Awesome.

Eggs, I can’t begin to describe. Between Breezy Willow and England Acres, the eggs from free range chickens have spoiled me, and I won’t ever have to buy grocery store eggs again.

The size of these eggs. If you love sunny side up eggs, this is the only way to go. How about a double yolk egg?

We just ordered a side of lamb from them, to be picked up in two weeks. I have to admit, their meat is by far some of the tastiest we have found. A half a lamb. 20 or so pounds, at a price that makes it so worth it. You get to customize your cuts, specify how you want it, boneless or not, and you have a ready source of food not tainted with hormones or antibiotics.

Tomorrow they are having a crafts swap at the farm. I will probably pop out there to leave my stained glass equipment and supplies for swap or barter. If I can find them tonight.

The farm does lots of fun things. Feed the chickens. Picnic on the property. Come to a corn freezing party in late summer. Local farms are the life of our area. Check them out.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo and tagged community, cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Demise of the Dark Days Challenge

Posted on April 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

And, the rise of local choices year round!

It was a great idea six years ago. To start a challenge for the dark days of winter. To try to find local ingredients to cook one meal a week for four months. Not Dabbling in Normal hosted it last year, and it is where I began my journey to look for locally sourced foods. It is what inspired me to start my local resources page, and to change what I ate, where I bought it, and how I prepared meals. It was not that difficult, thanks to all the resources here.

It seems to have outlived its usefulness, and it no longer was a challenge to cook a local meal in February. It became very easy in this area. High tunnels, greenhouses, hydroponic growing. Year round markets, indoors and outdoors. Farm stands open all winter. CSAs that deliver in the winter. Residents of Howard County are indeed lucky to live surrounded by farmers, artisans and entrepreneurs that keep us in local ingredients.

The challenge is gone, except for the few of us who still keep in touch, and blog every Sunday about our latest local meal. With me, most meals contain at least one locally sourced item. Breezy Willow CSA and Sandy Spring CSA provide me with fresh veggies and fruit for 44 weeks of the year. My freezer does duty to preserve some items so they are available in winter. The farm store at England Acres, the indoor market in Olney, and I don’t have to travel far to get what I need. For only ten weeks a year I don’t have local veggies provided to me from a CSA (yes, I can count, 44+10 equals 54 but my CSAs overlap). Look at these lovely winter selections, begging to make a chicken soup.

February Zahradka half share CSA

I think it is amazing that every year we expand the times for the Howard County markets, and add more farms. There are now five days of markets here in the county, from May until Thanksgiving.

We have at least eight CSAs dropping off boxes at pickup points, or being picked up at farms like Love Dove, Gorman, Breezy Willow, Shaw Farm and Roundabout Hills. Sandy Spring drops off in Columbia. Zahradka has at least two pick up points in the summer, and delivers to your door in the winter. One Straw Farm has been here a long time, too. People pick up at MOM’s or a private residence.

Add to that, South Mountain Creamery delivering milk, meat, eggs, other local products every week year round, to your door. And, now Friends and Farms is actively adding to the choices to find year round.

When I started all this writing, I didn’t know it would take me on a path to a new way of shopping, cooking and caring about the small local businesses here. Glad I took the challenge, and so glad I found all these wonderful people to sell me my food.

Ah yes, bison and polenta. Gunpowder Bison short ribs, Burnt Mills roasted corn meal made into polenta, one of those carrots from the above CSA delivery picture glazed with local honey, and the ribs topped with McCutcheons tomato preserves. Think eating locally is hard? Not here in HoCo, it isn’t!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Community, CSA, Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Colcannon on CSA Day

Posted on April 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

It’s week five of our Breezy Willow CSA. Mostly spring veggies with a little fruit and citrus. I did need to use up older stuff so colcannon came to mind.

I’ll add my recipe at the end of the post, but let’s start with what we got today.

Six juice oranges
Four Fuji apples
One pound sugar snap peas
Half pound white mushrooms
Two pounds onions
Three pound sweet potatoes
Half pound salad mix
One pound spinach
One dozen eggs
Sesame Seed Bread

This value added CSA brings us local veggies and fruit, along with not quite local but still not across the southern hemisphere when it comes to sourcing the items. I can handle that. It is all so fresh. It lasts all week and then some.

After picking up our veggies and checking out the alpacas, we headed off to Marriottsville. My husband does think the alpacas are amazing.

They are cute, aren’t they? So, we went off to the new Harris Teeter, that opened last night. The one in the west edge of Turf Valley. I used to go to Maple Lawn after picking up my summer CSA in Columbia, so this is a welcome addition to west county.

I wanted some seafood to pair with our latest veggies. And, to use up those older ones. The sockeye salmon on the plate above was picked up today. I also had considered getting some spring rolls but the sushi counter isn’t open yet. They were making balloon animals for the little ones, and doing a brisk business in VIC card sign ups. Even at 3 pm, it was crowded. Lots of checkouts open, though. No wait. I picked up seafood, olives, a red onion and fennel bulb to use with those gorgeous oranges for a salad.

They are 7 miles from us. Giant is 5.5 the other way. Looks like this Harris Teeter will be my local store for staples, seafood and those items I need to round out real food recipes with my CSA foods. Convenient, too. Double that trip. Conservancy and HT. Or, landfill and HT. Or, Woodstock snowball stand and HT. I can see the possibilities.

As for the colcannon recipe. I had two ounces of spinach left from last week. Six Brussels sprouts. Two parsnips. I also had six tiny new potatoes bought at England Acres. Potatoes and parsnips parboiled until tender.

Pan started with butter, olive oil and onion. Shredded sprouts and spinach added. Garlic, three cloves grated over them. A pinch of salt. Let it all cook down. Add the potatoes and parsnips. Mash them and add another pinch of salt and of pepper. And a splash of milk.

With dinner, we opened a bottle of Rappahannock Meritage. Old red wine goes well with salmon. It does have that characteristic cab franc nose from VA, but still a lovely bottle.

Mostly local for the veggies. Local wine. Great CSA. A good Wednesday night.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo, Wine and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Road Trip!

Posted on March 28, 2013 by AnnieRie

Day trips on weekdays out of season are one of the pleasures of retirement. Today we had plans to check out a fairly local “hams” set up to see options for my husband’s towers and shack. But, to appease me, we added a lunch stop and a winery visit, a new one for me to add to my Sixty@sixty list. First, lunch. At a local deli, Big Al’s Market, in St. Michael’s.

Sometimes it’s nice to be bad and eat sinfully delicious pit beef smoked that day. Right out on the sidewalk. You also know it’s good food when the sheriff’s car and a police car are there for their pick up of lunch. Fresh seafood, caught off Tilghman Island and brought in daily, sold for take home, or eat there. Beef, pork, brisket, turkey, all smoked. Oyster sandwiches. Shrimp salad. All sorts of crab accessories for sale, too.

The outside, with picnic tables. There are four tables inside too. They also said they had smoked salmon for sale. We should have brought a cooler and I would have been taking home local seafood from the market in the rear. Summertime, they do crabs daily too.

From there we wandered up Talbot St. to St. Michael’s Winery, in business since 2005, and now growing many vinifera and hybrid grapes on the Eastern shore. Nice crisp white wines. We bought a couple (OK, three) bottles. Nice selection. Cozy little tasting room. Must be crazy during high season on the shore.

I can do without the cute names, but the oaked chardonnay was a pleasant surprise. I first heard of this winery when one of my employees gave me a bottle of their chocolate zinfandel, a sweet red dessert wine good to pour over dessert cakes or ice cream. They told us they buy the zin grapes from Rhode Island.

Last stop, the ham shack up the road. My husband was suitably impressed with the towers and the shed converted to a shack.

Surrounded by pine trees and right off the creek, great location for amateur radio. All in all, a nice eight hour road trip. A couple of hours down and back and four hours to wander around and make the visit. St. Michael’s is a lovely destination convenient to us, and on the way to the ocean resorts. I see more road trips this spring and summer, and for me, those road trips will almost always include looking for local mom and pop restaurants, or markets.

What could be better if you wanted Maryland seafood and Maryland wine? If you want to try St. Michael’s wine, they regularly attend Columbia’s Wine in the Woods, coming up in May.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Day Trips, Food, Locavore, Real Food, Restaurants, Retirement, Sixty@Sixty, Wine and tagged amateur radio, day trips, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, retirement, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Branching Out

Posted on March 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

Or, using up the CSA box veggies in new ways. We know what we are getting tomorrow. Monday and Tuesday I decided to use as many veggies as I could.

By making stir fry, with shrimp.

Most of the Napa cabbage went into this meal. Along with the last of the mushrooms. Some carrot. All the bean sprouts left. Add the other items from the store, like water chestnuts, cashews, jumbo shrimp, chow mein noodles, red pepper and scallions. Soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne flakes. Mix. Match. Don’t measure much. Really good dinner. Enough left over for me to have Wednesday while my husband is at a dinner meeting.

Tonight I made my first ever spinach souffle. Because of a recipe in my Eating By Color book.

Great cookbook from Williams Sonoma. Mine didn’t rise as much as theirs. But, it still tasted great. Used more CSA eggs, and the spinach left in the spinner. I substituted red onion for the shallot.

Bechamel I am good at making. Souffles, eh.

I think I beat the egg whites too much. Still, it didn’t look bad, and was really good.

Who know what I will try with tomorrow’s CSA delivery.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in cookbooks, CSA, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Venison Chili with Virginia Wine

Posted on March 24, 2013 by AnnieRie

Wine with chili. Only a real win if the chili is subtle, smoky, with cinnamon undertones. Not the “In Your Face” heat. Sunday is the day the Eat Local All Winter group posts what we made using locally sourced items. After a wonderful day hiking and discovering new things at the Conservancy with Tom Wessels, it was nice to come home to a warming meal, chili.

Did you know we have young American chestnut trees surviving the blight, although they are fighting it, on the property in Woodstock? We found many interesting items today, and have the opportunity to learn more from the books about reading the forested landscape.

I will save more details about what we learned for a future post, and get back to the other topic, What was dinner? The vast majority of the chili came from our freezer. It included a large container of heirloom tomatoes from my garden, onions and peppers from the CSA, and a beef stew stock made last fall. All dumped in the crock pot with a pound of the ground venison. Additional tomato paste, black beans and tomato/lime/cilantro mix (courtesy of Rotel) came from the pantry and weren’t local. Also, a couple of onions from last week’s CSA delivery, chopped up. The spices were cinnamon, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. A splash of Pennsylvania maple syrup, and a chopped up jalapeno out of the freezer, another CSA contribution. Slow cooked for ten hours in the crock pot. It looked like this when done.

Served on the side were Trickling Springs butter and that old fashioned white bread from Great Harvest.

Since it didn’t overwhelm with heat, and had lovely flavor, I decided to open a VA wine. An old one. Predominantly petit verdot. A grape used sparingly in France in Bordeaux, but one which does well in the long growing season in VA.

Yes, the year is 2001, a very good year for VA wines. This blend is vastly different than the other three blends Linden produced in 2001. With all of them in the cellar, we get to sample the differences. This wine has softened over the years, but is still lovely. Supposed to be past its prime, but we don’t think so. Cherry and tobacco in the taste. Very easy to drink. Not brown around the edges either. We do need to drink the rest of these though, as they won’t hold many more years.

Later tonight, a bit of maple flavored yogurt from Pequea Valley Farm in PA, mixed with some blueberries from Butler Orchards, out of the freezer. Lots of berries left, and the yogurt is one I have talked about many times, available at Breezy Willow or at England Acres.

I have to admit again, eating locally in the winter is not difficult around here.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, Real Food, Volunteering, West HoCo, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, howard county conservancy, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

AnnieRie Unplugged

Category Archives: Real Food

In Search of Seedlings

Week Six of the Breezy Willow CSA

The Sunday Night Eat Local Report

From Farm to Freezer – Larriland

England Acres

The Demise of the Dark Days Challenge

Colcannon on CSA Day

Road Trip!

Branching Out

Venison Chili with Virginia Wine

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