Tag Archives: farmer’s markets

Jennys Is Open

Posted on May 2, 2015 by AnnieRie

One of my favorite milestones in springtime. The opening of Jenny’s Market off Rte. 32 just north of us. Today the market opened. I borrowed a picture from their Facebook page. It shows every reason why I love them. They are a family business. One that cares about us, and that we care about.

For me, this picture below from last May is the main reason they are a favorite place to shop.

I can’t grow these items. No local farmers do, either. For me, having access to bananas, avocados, mangos, and citrus, without having to drive 20 miles round trip is a huge plus.

Today I picked up a couple of avocados and bananas. Some new red potatoes. It was just fun to go visit on opening day.

They also have hanging baskets and seedlings. And, watermelon from Florida. I might be tempted to stop in for a watermelon this week. I have feta. I have mint. I can get limes at Jennys. Time to make one of these.

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses and tagged community, cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Weather and Wool

Posted on April 28, 2015 by AnnieRie

Tomorrow I am volunteering for the third extreme weather event held for Howard County High School Students. It should prove to be another fantastic event and I hope to get many pictures of the participants learning from all the amazing companies that give their time to expand the knowledge of our students.

As usual, the Howard County Conservancy field trip managers have put together an exciting array of activities, demonstrations and speakers to present for this day long event.

A few days later, I intend to immerse myself into the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this Saturday and Sunday out at the Howard County Fairgrounds. I have never been around to take in the festival. One of the largest and best sheep and wool festivals in the USA and Canada.

Many farms in the area participate in this event. Like Breezy Willow , Catoctin Creek and Shepherds Manor Creamery.

Medomak Retreat Center has a booth. I so want to spend a week there at one of their “summer camps” for adults.

Landreth Seeds will be there. I hope to find something rare from them.

And, Greenbridge Pottery. Another local favorite when it comes to looking for unique gifts.

That’s all I recognize in this year’s catalogue but I probably missed a few more local farms and vendors. This festival is huge so if you want to go, be prepared for very large crowds.

I do intend to check out the lamb cooking demonstration, and maybe make the Sunday Brunch. See you there?

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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Volunteering, Weather and tagged community, farmer's markets, farms, Food, Howard County, howard county conservancy, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Transitions

Posted on April 26, 2015 by AnnieRie

Winter has finally left the building.

It is almost farmers market season. The spring and summer Community Supported Agriculture deliveries will soon begin. Our Friends and Farms basket will have ASPARAGUS!!!!!! in it. Do I sound ready for something other than root vegetables?

We got a mixed basket last week.

The good additions. Lovely leaf lettuce, hydroponic tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, cucumbers. Good things to grill too, like country ribs.

I am so happy that the markets are about to open. The week of the 4th of May. The same week we get our first CSA delivery. There will be seven markets in Howard County this year. Three on Saturday. That should prove interesting. For us, the return of Glenwood is awesome. We love having a local market. Where we can run over for bread or fruit or plants. As for veggies, not so much. Between my garden and the CSA, we won’t be buying many veggies.

We are transitioning to a full share in our CSA. Transitioning to a protein and dairy bag from Friends and Farms. That should provide us with the right amount of food to keep us out of the grocery stores for a while.

I also structured our garden planting to be able to provide us with the ingredients necessary to make sauces and roast tomatoes to fill my almost empty freezer. This year I made it to May with my frozen sauces and tomatoes. I say May because I have three containers left of sauce.

The sauce has found its way into many meals. Like those killer lasagna.

Tomatoes from my freezer. Peppers from the CSA. A slight tweak on the traditional lasagna.

Besides the large amount of tomato sauce in the freezer, there was quite a bit of pesto. And herb butters.

Nothing like pasta with pesto.

Here’s to celebrating spring. And all the goodness it brings.

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Main Streets

Posted on April 13, 2015 by AnnieRie

I grew up in a city. Baltimore, to be exact. Living on “Main Street”.

On 144 just east of Catonsville (yes, I know Candlelight Lodge is now a funeral parlor instead of the restaurant it was).

Saturday I drove that main street. Starting in Ellicott City.

Filled with family owned businesses (except for that stupid Subway they added).

Heading east to Catonsville.

Home of Atwater’s. One of those amazing bakeries around here. Where you can buy lunch and head upstairs to comingle with others at the tables while having lunch.

They have a couple of farmer’s markets right off Main Street aka Frederick Avenue. One on Wednesday and one on Sunday. They also are the home of an icon.

Bill’s Music House. You have to see it to believe it. It’s huge, and a landmark to us.

I love heading off the highways and traveling the Main Streets in our area.

Take a trip on Rte. 144. Part of the National Road. Worth the time to park, explore and discover.

If you keep heading east you will hit the Inner Harbor. Frederick Road becomes Pratt Street. I couldn’t have grown up in a better part of this state. So much history. So many stories to hear.

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Restaurants and tagged community, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

The Incredible Edible

Posted on April 11, 2015 by AnnieRie

Eggs.

For years, they got a bad rap. Now, we know they are one very packed source of many vital nutrients. We stopped buying them during that period. Now, they are an important part of our diet. Maybe that’s why my eyesight has stabilized. And why my “good” cholesterol keeps going up.

We get eggs weekly now in our Friends and Farms basket. Really fresh, wonderful eggs. The kind with that bright yellow yolk.

Eggs on Sunday morning is standard fare at the house. Served with whatever fresh bread we get.

The markets are opening in a few weeks. If you want to experience the taste of fresh eggs, you should pick up a dozen from one of the local farmers.

If you really get hooked on fresh eggs, you can always find out how to raise chickens in your yard (how’s that for a segue into Greenfest?). Cathy Hudson and Van Wensil will be offering their workshop at 12:30 pm at this year’s Greenfest at Howard Community College on April 18th. Always popular.

If you can’t raise chickens, you can find them at many of the local farms, like England Acres. I like to go there and watch the chickens run all around the farm, while you are checking out the goodies in their farm store.

Tomorrow, April 12th, they are open and grilling their beef for tasting. Eggs and other local goodies in the store. They are just west of Mt. Airy. Most of the lamb we eat comes from them.

What does this have to do with eggs? Nothing, really. I am just very happy to see spring has arrived and the farms and markets are opening weekly.

As for the eggs. How about a few more of my favorite ways to enjoy them.

A frittata.

Or a spinach salad.

I also love to make egg salad for sandwiches.

Such a versatile food. Easy to make. Easy to digest. Easy to find. And, quite good for us, too.

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

Nearly Impossible?

Posted on February 6, 2015 by AnnieRie

Local Produce? In the winter? Around here?

A few years ago I may have made that statement myself. Now, I know better. There was a long discussion on one of our local facebook pages, Clarksville Happenings. About rotten produce (and meat) at our community grocery store. Lamenting the apparent lack of quality control, and attention, from the big chain.

Lots of discussion about using Roots, Wegmans, Boarmans and Harris Teeter as alternatives to getting less than stellar fresh foods.

One comment struck me. A good thought. Using mostly local foods instead of those flown in from far away. Eating locally and sustainably. But, the caveat. That it was nearly impossible to find local produce in the winter in the Northeast.

Dark Days Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Before I took the Dark Days Challenge in 2012, I didn’t know what was available locally. I signed up for a winter CSA. Lots of root vegetables and a few flash frozen fill ins. I found DuPont Circle, Silver Spring and Tacoma Park year round markets. You could make that once a week challenge meal using those sources.

Now, there are many more options for fresher better foods. I get 90% of my food from Friends and Farms (which sources regionally) and Lancaster Farm Fresh (which delivers a CSA to Columbia while dropping off wholesale foods to MOM’s, Roots, David’s and Friends and Farms).

A December CSA Delivery

All my meat and seafood except for specialty items I get at Boarman’s. Dairy. Bread. Produce. Pantry items. Every week. Fresh from the greenhouses or high tunnels.

It means eating seasonally. There aren’t many choices for fruit. There are quite a number of flash frozen items to fill in the gaps. Still, I can eat most of my meals without going to a store. For those who are ready to use local produce, check out my local resources page. Besides my two current suppliers, there’s Breezy Willow Early Bird starting next month.

My carbon footprint is smaller too. Even if it includes citrus from Florida. Which is awesome by the way. Something about grapefruit in a salad that makes cold weather recede into the background.

Well, time to check on dinner. In the oven on slow cook. The tri tip roast from F&F. Fingerlings from LFFC. Carrots and onions. A mushroom gravy I made from two weeks worth of mushrooms. That soup I made the other night. I thickened the leftovers and made the gravy for the roast. It smells wonderful up in the kitchen.

Local meals. In February. Not impossible at all.

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Posted in Commentary, CSA, Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged commentary, cooking, CSA, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Posted on January 12, 2015 by AnnieRie

A phrase we used to send retiring or transferring coworkers on their way to their new assignments, or to their future as retirees.

Today, I want to send that message to two women who spent 18 years making farmer’s markets in the DC area some of the absolute best places to buy local and support small businesses.

Ann Yonkers and Bernadine Price announced their impending retirement as the directors of the markets. Freshfarm is one of my favorite market companies (for lack of a better word). They run 13 markets in the DC/NoVA/MD area. Two of them year round. Those two were my introduction to year round markets.

Silver Spring on Saturdays, and DuPont Circle on Sundays. They introduced me to Atwater’s. Mock’s Greenhouses. Smith Meadows and more.

Silver Spring also had the benefit for us of having Lebanese Taverna right there. For lunch.

We spent many Saturdays in Silver Spring, before I found local farms open. For us, they were the source of local foods in the winter.

Besides, they have the best web site out there to tell us what is happening weekly.

If you get a chance, head down there some Saturday morning, just down US29, and check it out for yourself. And, tell the workers at the freshfarm tent that you appreciate what Ann and Bernie started, 18 years ago.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, People, Retirement and tagged commentary, community, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, retirement. Bookmark the permalink.

Home for the Holidays

Posted on December 17, 2014 by AnnieRie

Yesterday we took a trip back to my husband’s home town. Mainly because we hadn’t been there in 18 months, and we wanted to check in on some things (and buy some of his favorite kielbasy). Most of the family is gone. Moved, passed away. A few friends still in the area, but not many.

It’s a deeply depressed coal mining town. We found my husband’s old house on the market again. Like hundreds in the area. We were lucky to sell it quickly 12 years ago when my MIL moved to a retirement community in Pottsville.

The cemetery. Covered in fog and snow. Too wet, windy and cold to try to take pictures. We were there to check on the gravesites, before paying our yearly maintenance fee to the man who the church uses to maintain graves for those who are no longer local. The cemetery is on a huge hill outside of town. At 1800 feet elevation according to our GPS.

This picture, taken last year shows the wind turbines installed on the ridge. Yesterday we couldn’t see them, the fog was so thick.

As for getting that kielbo, we forgot that Kowalonek’s gets really crazy at the holidays. Lines out the door, through the parking lot and around the corner. Not our idea of what to do in the rain and wind. We decided to head south to Manheim and look for fresh kielbasa at the Roots Country Market and Auction.

We found some at Hummer’s meats. A three pound ring of fresh, not smoked kielbasa. It almost is as good as his hometown version but not quite. We also picked up some of Hodecker’s celery, a real delicacy harvested in the fall and early winter. The web site is from the Bed and Breakfast at the farm where the celery is grown.

Some of that celery went into stock tonight. The leaves were frozen for later use.

We took the back roads up and back. On the way up, we stopped at the Peters Orchards to get some gifts like this one.

Cranberry salsa. Made in PA. Peters carries a nice selection of hot pepper jellies, all sorts of jams, honey, syrup and much more. They are open year round and are on the way to Carlisle on Rte 94. My husband couldn’t resist the molasses cookies either.

All in all, on a rainy blustery day, we had a good time, even though traffic was awful on the way home. I have to admit, I don’t miss that commute in really bad weather up I-81.

Now, off to bake cookies and other goodies using things I picked up at the market.

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Posted in Day Trips, Family, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Locavore, Real Food, Travel and tagged day trips, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, holidays, Locavore, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

The Dark Days

Posted on December 13, 2014 by AnnieRie

The time of year when the sun is in the opposite hemisphere, and our daylight hours get shorter and shorter. On December 21st, we here in Howard County only get 9 1/2 hours of daylight. Then, thankfully, the days get longer after that day.

A few years back, I did a food challenge. Called the Dark Days Challenge. The challenge, simply, was to make a meal once a week in the winter that used almost completely regional, seasonal items, and/or items you preserved from the summer.

I found out we had lots of sources here in Central Maryland. I didn’t have to eat food flown halfway across the country or halfway around the world. I learned about the Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and DuPont circle year round markets. I found farmers in the area where I could procure local meats.

I found a year round CSA. Bottom line. I changed how I ate. I changed how I cooked. I reduced my carbon footprint by using more and more local foods.

Last night, I made dinner. Afterwards, I realized how that dinner would have rocked the Dark Days Challenge. Almost all of it was local. And I didn’t even work hard to do it. I had just changed my food sources over the years.

My lamb stew dinner. Using Mt. Airy Meats lamb. CSA potatoes, turnips, onions and carrots. Friends and Farms kale, garlic and rosemary. Trickling Springs butter. Secolari’s olive oil and balsamic. Wayne Nell’s bacon ends.

And the wine.

A 1999 Linden Glen Manor from Virginia. Like inhaling cherries. Dark, delicious. Nowhere near its peak. A bargain back when we bought it. A treasure to be savored with the lamb.

My husband declared I now make a braised lamb stew that rivals those that Marc Dixon used to make at Iron Bridge. Falling off the bone lamb. Simply cooked in the oven at slow cooker setting, with the potatoes, turnips, carrots and onions in a chicken stock I made last month.

Yes, I know I need to clean the oven. Ignore that. I did the stew in one pan. Seared it first, added the vegetables and stock and cooked it for four hours at the 250 degree setting in the oven.

The kale. Started out with scallions from Laurel Amish Market. Olive oil. Bacon ends. Added the kale and garlic. Sautéed until wilted.

So easy to eat fresh food around here.

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Posted in CSA, Dark Days, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged community, cooking, CSA, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

In Search Of Kielbo

Posted on December 7, 2014 by AnnieRie

Our search for a local source of fresh kielbasa continues. For my husband, who grew up in a town where kielbasa was made a certain way, we have looked near (and far) to find a source for “kielbo” that tastes as good as his hometown favorite.

Fresh. Just like this one. From here.

The closest we have come is from some local farms, but it isn’t quite the same.

You can see the difference in the texture. And, they are different. Last Friday we decided to check out the meat department down at the Amish market in Laurel. Beiler’s price list includes Polish style kielbasa, but they didn’t have any. Just garlic kielbasa grillers, and smoked kielbasa. Which is not the same thing. Not bad, but not fresh and garlicky like his hometown style.

We did find some other goodies at the market, which is open Thursday through Saturday weekly. This market moved to Laurel from Burtonsville. It is much busier, and bigger, in its Laurel location. I hit the bulk food vendors for some ground coriander, which isn’t easy to find, and some apricot jam to use on an Asian pear tart I want to make for the holidays. At the meat vendor, we did find “hot half smokes”. Anyone working in and around DC knows about half smokes. We also brought home a very small piece of garlic ring bologna and a pound of bacon ends.

Unique items, including bison, are available at the Beilers meat stand in the market. The market also boasts a pickle vendor, with vats of different varieties.

We have to return for a longer visit sometime this winter. This close to home Amish market reminds us of the ones up in PA on the way to my husband’s hometown.

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