Tag Archives: farmer’s markets

CSA Value Assessment

Posted on July 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

I didn’t post my savings until I got some updated numbers from local markets and vendors. Week Ten CSA was delivered Thursday. It looked like this

Sandy Spring CSA Delivery Week Ten

and I wrote about it here.

With this week’s savings, of $9.65 over weekly cost of $29.75, I am now $89.80 ahead in total for being 40% through the 25 week season. If anyone doubts the value of joining an organic CSA, they just need to look at what organic foods cost in stores, markets and at farm stands.

The breakout from week ten is this:

Corn, 5 ears, 50 cents an ear, $2.50
Carrots, $3.50 a bunch for heirloom varieties
Fennel $1.69 each for 2 of them, rounded to $3.40
Pickling cukes, white variety, a bargain at 2/$1, there were 8 of them, so $4
Slicing cukes, 3 large ones, $4.50 total
Garlic, two heads, $2 each at market, so $4 total
Heirloom red radishes, $2.50 a bunch
Blue Viking potatoes, 3 lbs at $1.50 a pound, $4.50
Zucchini, one very large, over a pound, so $2
Green beans and Rattlesnake beans, $3 each basket, so $6 total
Jalapenos, 5 medium to large size, $.50 each, so $2.50

What is missing in all this number crunching is that intrinsic value. That freshness of taste. That discovery of a new and interesting variety of vegetable not encountered before. For me this week, rattlesnake beans are a new addition. I read up on them and found that young and tender, treat them like green beans, older with heavily developed beans, take them out of their pods and cook them.

Young rattlesnake beans

As for the garlic, I love getting organic garlic, and later this year, I will put aside a few heads in order to plant them this fall. Victoria over at The Soffrito planted hers in pots and heavily mulched them over the winter and got lovely garlic, including scapes prior to digging up the garlic to cure. Supermarket garlic won’t sprout; it is treated with an anti-sprouting agent.

Organic garlic, perfect for planting in October

This week with my other CSA goodies, I will be making potato salad, pickling some cukes, and also making tzatziki using some of Wegmans Greek yogurt and their organic lemons and mint from my garden. And, yes, I will be grilling some corn. I love it when corn season arrives.

Oh, and if I get a few more large tomatoes in the next two or three days, there will be gazpacho on the menu. Maybe on one of those hundred degree days that might come next week.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, tomatoes, value of CSA, weather, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Summer CSA Week Ten, The Greens are Gone!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, we seem to have survived greens season, and even though our email said FIVE MORE zucchini, thankfully, they lied.

There was only one.

What did we get? The list is below. I swapped cilantro for what looks like white wonder cucumbers, ten of them to use in salads and to pickle.

1 Bag Rattlesnake Beans
1 Bag Green Beans
1 Bag Jalapeno Peppers
1 Green Zucchini
1 Bag Purple Viking Potatoes
1 Bag Fennel Bulbs
1 Bag White Garlic
3 Slicing Cucumbers
1 Bunch Thumbelina French Heirloom Carrots
1 Bunch Red Radishes
1 Bunch Cilantro
5 Ears Sweet Corn

We also got our first five ears of corn for the year. One big one, and four smaller ears, that will be grilled tomorrow night. The rattlesnake beans are new to me, as are purple viking potatoes. The carrots are getting bigger, too.

This week I know with twelve items we will be far ahead again on value. I really need to hit the market tomorrow before deciding what the savings are, as some of these items are new.

As for what I did to use up most of last week’s haul, I made Use Up the CSA Stew the other night, and also made couscous salad, and a potato salad. The salads are going with me to the Conservancy tonight.

There are potatoes, onions, carrots, kale, chard, beet greens, carrot tops, garlic and a couple of farmer’s market tomatoes in the pot. A little chicken stock for liquid. Herbs from my garden. Topped it off with some Boarman’s short ribs. Let it cook for eight hours. It ended up looking like this.

The short ribs fell off the bone. No need for a knife. Served with an Allegro Merlot.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, hoco loco, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The YEMMies are Coming!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

What’s a YEMMie? A new term I found reading Barron’s last week. It seems many younger mothers are becoming selective about buying unprocessed and natural foods, instead of highly refined or processed items to serve their families. Barron’s calls them Young Educated Millennial Mothers, or YEMMies.

Updating to say that clicking on Barron’s takes you to a preview page. The article is from July 7th, so you have to click again on the correct date to get it to open.

From Barron’s perspective, it is a reason to seek out investments in areas like Whole Foods and Hain Celestials.

From the healthy living perspective, I know I have seen this attitude in those who belong to the CSA with us. Many mothers making their own baby foods from the organic veggies we get every week. Trading for things like squash and sweet potatoes, to puree for strained foods.

The popularity of smoothies. It is another reason people join CSAs. Organic produce, without waxes or sprays, chemical free, allow you to use the entire vegetable and not lose the nutrients found in the skins. When I make cucumber salad, for example, with my own cucumbers, or those from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, I can leave all or part of the skin on them, without having to eat waxed cucumber skins.

Organic oranges, lemons and limes give me wax free and chemical free zest.

Later this summer I will be pickling watermelon rinds, and I will also be making preserved lemons. In both instances, I search out organic. Now that Wegmans has arrived, with over 100,000 organic items, they will be my source for what I need to cook and preserve.

Those of us who have changed our habits to buy more raw ingredients, and cook more from scratch, are finding lots of company among the younger adults. Add to that the resurgence in young farmers and the explosion of farmers markets, and it seems maybe better food and more choice for organic is the result.

If you attend Miller Library or Howard General’s markets on Wednesday and Friday, say Hi to John Dove, of Love Dove Farms, who was profiled in the Howard Magazine lately. He is just one of the local farmers growing things without chemicals. The article mentions TLV and Breezy Willow, two other good sources for veggies, meat and eggs.

It is almost Buy Local Week here. the last week of July. Are you supporting the Buy Local challenge? I am. Make at least one local meal or item in a meal from foods bought from a Howard County Farmer!

Local greens, radishes, cheese and blueberries in salad

hocofood@@@

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

Summer Harvest Feasts

Posted on July 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

Glenwood Market was a good place to be this morning. Lots of activity. Breezy Willow the place to get organic veggies.

Like fresh sweet corn.

Zahradka had gorgeous tomatoes.

Triadelphia Lake View Farm had baskets of fingerlings, my favorite potatoes.

Guess what is going to be in dinner tonight?

Next weekend there will be a family fun fest at the Glenwood market. Check it out.

hocofood@@@

The Attack of the Monster Zucchini

Posted on July 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

CSA Week Nine. Five more monsters in the box. It is officially zucchini season.

Ratatouille is baking as we speak, although I had to get an eggplant and some tomatoes to do it. None yet from the CSA. This is the list. The green beans were MIA, so there were only nine items, not ten. It happens occasionally that an item won’t get selected for some reason, and not get packed.

The haul spread out on the counter looked like this. I saw a red cabbage in the swap box, so made a swap of the huge green cabbage for this more compact red one. Cabbage three weeks in a row. Cole slawed and sauerkrauted out at the moment, so this will make a cabbage apple slaw next week sometime.

The price analysis continues, using some Wegmans organic pricing I saw today. And, yes, we left before the fire in the kitchen caused an evacuation. Must have been interesting, although they were not that crowded at 10 am.

Red cabbage, two pound head, cost $2.49 a pound, which is $4.98. Yellow squash, $2.49 each, so $4.98 there. Zucchini, $1.69 a pound. My five weighed four pounds total, so $6.76. Cucumbers were $2 each for large ones. I have seen them for $1.50 each for the smaller ones, so my three should total $5. Leaf lettuces $3 each, but half the size of mine makes $6. Kale and Chard were $2.69 each at Wegmans, for stalks half the size, so four times that will total $10.76. Beets $3 a bunch, smaller so let’s say $4 for the large ones we got. Heirloom carrots, again, but more of them, $3.50 let’s say, since I can’t find these anywhere. Total this week in value for equivalent organic veggies would be approximately $46 for the whole haul. $16.25 more than my weekly tab for the CSA from Sandy Spring.

Add that to my surplus from the previous eight weeks and it totals $80.15 that I am ahead after nine weeks. I knew last year that this was a great value for organic foods, but didn’t take the time to look at prices in stores and at farmers markets. This is such a great deal for getting organics, and getting some very unique ones as well.

I will be linking up with the linky party at In Her Chucks, what’s in the box. Check it out to see what people make from all over the USA, and in other countries with their CSA veggies.

Gotta go. My ratatouille is smelling wonderful, and I need to grill those local Italian beef sausages for dinner. And find a local red wine, as this is my weekly local meal. Only the tomatoes and eggplant aren’t local in this dinner. Posting about it later.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Locavore, value of CSA, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Brinner

Posted on July 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

Breakfast for dinner. One of the simple pleasures. Lots of things left from the fridge and a couple of eggs. Everything locally procured, except for the bread which came from High’s. But, it was Hauswald’s, a Maryland bakery. You know, that weird white bread is just different after eating freshly made good bread from places like Atwater’s. But, when the roads are all messed up and High’s is open, you make do.

The A/C is fixed. Just a capacitor, a victim of the power surge. It is now cooling down again, but dinner was quick, easy to make and didn’t heat up the kitchen too much.

More tomorrow about our clean up and some thoughts about being in West HoCo after such a huge storm.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, GGSAC, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Global Warming

Posted on June 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

It has to be. Why else would I have ripe tomatoes in June? Earlier than I ever have harvested tomatoes? Last year I had yellow pear tomatoes on 1 July. This year, yellow plum harvested this morning. Here is the picture from yesterday morning.

Besides these, I have sweet olive tomatoes about ready. Maybe Thursday or Friday for the first of these.

This morning I went out to look for cucumbers. I had used many of them for salads, pickles and tzatziki for Field Day. I knew there were a few more lurking under the leaves. I was checking on the tomatoes and one of them fell off the vine, so I decided to take them to make breakfast.

I also pulled the last of the spring garlic in hopes of making some pesto. And pulled a few pole beans off. The take.

Breakfast came together easily. Some of those luscious eggs from my friend’s hens. Scapes from my spring garlic and my little tomatoes.

Added what I thought was the last of the foraged wild asparagus, but I found two more today. Trickling Springs butter. Some CSA yellow chard and Boarman’s bacon went in the pan also.

Let everything mix together and add some heels of bread to sop up all that good butter.

Yes, I broke one yolk. Remember ugly food tastes better. I just adjusted what I did.

Here’s to many more local meals from my garden, my friends, and the local farmers of Howard County. Any other tomatoes out there being harvested?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, Howard County, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally, the Whole Weekend

Posted on June 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Without going to Wegmans. 🙂

Seems like all anyone is talking about is Wegmans. Don’t get me wrong. I love going there for specialty items but camping out? Really? Seems like from the comments I will be OK if I go looking for that Marvesta shrimp and stay away from the food court.

My challenge to cook locally continues and most of this weekend included local meals. Check out what the others are doing on our Google Reader page.

Friday night we went to Black Ankle. Most of what I took to eat was locally produced.

Saturday I grilled all sorts of local goodies.

The petit filets and tomatoes were from Boarman’s. Yellow zucchini, asparagus and radishes from Glenwood market. Potatoes, lettuce and onions from CSA. Green beans and herbs from my garden. The tomatoes were not local, but they were so good after oven roasting them.

Today was a fun day. Lots to do around the house. No time to camp out to go to a grocery store. Can you tell I wonder why people would camp out to go to a grocery store? Really. The only thing I ever camped out for was Jimmy Buffett tickets.

Getting ready for ARRL amateur radio field day. More on this later in the week. But, we spent hours checking hardware for the towers.

Dinner was in the crock pot. Lots of greens this week in the CSA, so I made a variation of a Tuscan bean soup. A pound of kale. Chicken broth from my freezer. Italian sausage from South Mountain. The butter beans were not local, but they were organic from Roots. Spring garlic from my garden.

So were the herbs.

A sweet onion from the CSA, salt and pepper. A really good meal.

Dinner tonight was served with a 2004 Linden Cabernet Franc. Love their francs. None of the bell pepper acidity of other Virginia francs.

Last night an old Pearmund complemented the filets. Hanging in there barely but still a good wine. 2002 was not a big year in Virginia. This Ameritage was starting to fade just a bit. Still, with the big steak flavors, it did OK.

Friday night of course was Black Ankle night. Lots of local MD wine to drink.

I think I went an entire weekend eating mostly locally produced foods. Haven’t been to a grocery store all month. You can eat amazing meals using markets, CSAs and a local butcher like Boarman’s.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

On a Wine Wednesday …

Posted on June 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Trying to make sense of hashtags? What is #WW? Is it Wine Wednesday? Or Writer’s Wednesday? Or Wacky Wednesday? Keeping up on Twitter is sometimes confusing. But, for me, I think I will consider yesterday was Wine Wednesday.

We have been slowly working through older wines in the cellar. Buying local wines when first released, usually at a good price, and putting them away while drinking less expensive jug and non vintage stuff allowed us to keep some amazing wines stashed away. Out of sight. Out of mind.

We now are in the position of pulling out oldies but goodies, and enjoying that patience of 33 years of putting away more bottles than we drank. It also took organization. I kept an Excel spreadsheet that collated and tracked everything shoved under the cellar stairs in our old house. Now, I am working my way through that sheet.

Mostly doing OK. Pouring one or two down the drain, but keeping track did allow us to minimize the loss. We bought cases of cheap Bordeaux, years ago. I am talking $65 a CASE for some wines. Those we opened for parties, or with dinner on a weekend.

We joined a few case clubs, or cellar clubs, like Breaux. We get a case a year. Mostly really decent wines. I have posted before about being a “locapour” and choosing local wines to drink when I can. I think it makes eating locally even more fun, when you can pair a local wine with locally grown food. This lovely Cellar Selection Nebbiolo Ice became part of dessert last week, paired with a few slices of Bowling Green Farms Feta. Salty Feta, and deeply rich wine, a perfect pairing. Nice to enjoy while watching sunsets on the porch.

We also have done a few vineyard visits to places like the Finger Lakes, and Charlottesville. Put together a four pack or six pack, mostly of white wines, but with one or two good reds to put away. Our visit to Pearmund last Sunday brought us a couple of Ameritage to put away, and a few Chardonnays to drink now.

Last night we had leftovers, so to speak. I made lasagna the other night, and last night we had part of it for dinner. This was thrown together, no real recipe lasagna. Full of local items, but also using up stuff from the fridge, pantry and freezer.

I used to buy frozen lasagna all the time when I worked. I now make it from scratch, and use whatever is around. I made this “mess”, yes, it looks ugly, but ugly food tastes better, right? 🙂

The meat in this lasagna is South Mountain Creamery pork sausage. Very little of it, but enough to make it tasty. Taken out of its casings, I chopped two links of sausage and mixed with a jar of McCutcheon’s spaghetti sauce and herbs from my garden, and half a container of Pacific Organic red pepper tomato soup. Long on sauce and short on sausage. Below is a staple I buy at Costco, an organic soup that adds flavor to so many of my meals. It even jazzes up my gazpacho occasionally.

I had the last of the South Mountain mozzarella and some Bowling Green Farms cheddar in the fridge. It got mixed into the stack, and I cheated and used no boil noodles found in the pantry. The other item used was chard. Lots of sauteed chard to form part of two layers on the bottom. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it worked out well. Really had a good taste.

Along with the lasagna, I put together a locally sourced salad. Romaine and orange cauliflower from the Catonsville market. Feta from Bowling Green Farms. Radishes from Breezy Willow. My first cucumber from the garden. Blueberries from Butler’s. And, blackberry splash vinaigrette from Catoctin Mountain Orchards.

I love fruit in salads. Summer berries are so good tossed on greens with cheese and other crunchy veggies. All in all, another relaxed patio meal, with another wine from down the road a piece. I am hoping this lovely weather holds for Father’s Day weekend. It has certainly been nice lately.

hocofood@@@

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

Lunch at Atwater’s

Posted on June 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

Atwater’s in downtown Catonsville. Right on Frederick Rd. Just up from the turn for the Wednesday market. We have become addicted to their breads. Much nicer crusts than some of the others around here. We picked up a small boule to use with soup I made, and a sliced rosemary Italian loaf. The boule. The sliced loaf already went to the car with some other goodies my better half bought.

Then, we did a tiffin to sit outside and watch the world drive by.

Today’s tiffin box included gazpacho, a rosemary Italian roll, and a small piece of dark and stormy cake as the treat. The cake didn’t make the pic. The gazpacho was amazingly good. The roll perfect. I had a Morrocan mint green tea (iced).

You could wander across the street after lunch to the antique store.

Or pop down to the Wednesday morning market, which was hopping.

The market included a visit from Elk Run Winery. Wish we could get tastings of anything at the HoCo markets. Stupid county regs won’t allow tastings.

You could also get smoked salmon or smoked trout, or other goodies from Neopol. If you live on the east side of Howard County, check out this market. Kite Hill farm also comes here, with unique meats. Today they had scrapple, and liver, and whole turkey legs. No need to buy grocery store meats with artisans like this nearby.