Tag Archives: Food

Saturday at Tractor Supply

Posted on March 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

The baby chicks are in. We headed out to Tractor Supply today to use my 10% coupon, looking at the greenhouse, wanting some bird seed, hubby wanted a new belt and a good pair of jeans, and I wanted hiking boots. My old ones are shot. With the coupon and the sales, Tractor Supply has the best prices on basic bird seed, work clothes, Ariat boots and shoes, and they were advertising a small greenhouse at a great price.

And, yes, the chicks are in. They have five or six varieties, rock cornish, red pullet, brahma bantam, to name a few. They also had baby ducks. Minimum purchase is six. No Easter presents is the reason. These are chicks for those who want to raise egg layers or fatten up those future broilers and fryers. The rock cornish are the chickens we get from England Acres. Great birds. Really a good breed for those looking for meat production. Chicks were $1.99 or $2.99 each, and ducks were $2.99 each. They were doing a brisk business selling chicks.

I did find hiking boots. If you have never bought Ariat boots, you really should look into them. A very nicely made product that lasts forever, and is not inexpensive. Mostly leather products. Lots of riding boots. I have many of their items and this is my first hiking boot purchase.

Of course, it seems every time we visit Tractor Supply, we run into someone we know. Today the place was very busy and we ran into a friend who has a farm over in Glenwood. We talked about how their lambing, and the birthing of their goats are going.

Popular place, in Mt. Airy. While out there I did head over to England Acres to get a few things. CSA starts next week so I only needed some dairy, bread and a few apples. I did pick up some lovely carrots and onions to make a chicken soup midweek, just in case I don’t get them in my first CSA delivery.

They knew I was coming, and they saved me a package of gingersnaps. I had asked about them the last visit, and there weren’t any. These are the best gingersnaps. Chewy, spicy, great with milk. My husband loves them as a snack. One of the little pleasures of knowing the source of your food. We also put our name down to get the side of lamb in April. They are doing two offerings of fresh lamb, one this month and one next month. Only chance this year to get fresh lamb from them. A side of lamb is about 20-25 pounds, just enough to give you some special meals.

Freshly ground lamb is so good. Remembering my grilled kofta from last year. I can’t wait to be able to make it again this spring. Doesn’t this picture just scream springtime?

Link to my post and recipe is here.

hocoblogs@@@

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

Choosing Community … Revisited

Posted on March 1, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last year after our last blog party, I wrote a post about Choosing Community, instead of just being civil. Community, a closer relationship than just nodding and being distant, but pleasant.

This month’s blog party reminded me of the post. Some of the blogging community have moved on. Sarah, to California, and Matt to Baltimore, for example. But, many interesting people have come to event after event. I get my morning news from hocoblogs. Checking out what is happening on Patch, or moving over to hocorising to get my community news. Tom is the ultimate poster child for choosing community. He is so dedicated to Howard County, in his actions and his words. There are others, too, but Tom really likes to research and post very detailed reports.

It is funny that I went looking at posts. I hit a milestone yesterday. 500 posts. In sixteen months. About a post a day. What was most popular? Besides the fact that every time I look at my sidebar that shows The YEMMies are coming is right up there, and the fact that now is baby chick season at Tractor Supply, and for whatever reason, people still keep opening the Brighton Dam posts, it seems my community postings get the most views. This year I suppose I need to take pictures of the baby chicks, and be sure to get those prices. And, do the weekly visit to Brighton to check how the azaleas are coming along.

I seem to be gravitating into posting as the lone voice in west county. Is there anyone else out here with a blog? Or, are we just surrounded by our farms and animals?

I think that’s where I will continue to focus this blog. Life as a retiree smack in the middle of Tier III land, surrounded by Tier IV, and blogging about my amazing neighbors and friends out here. Seems I have lots of potential topics, what with markets and farms, and stormwater management, and comprehensive rezoning.

I like this little corner of #thehoco. Just hoping I get another 500 posts with continued inspiration from life out here. Can’t beat the scenery.

hocoblogs@@@

Where Did Winter Go?

Posted on February 28, 2013 by AnnieRie

I must admit, typing this, that I may jinx us, and we will get a March snowstorm. But, that would be really interesting as we haven’t had one of those for quite a while. Today temps in the fifties lured me out to mix potting soil and top soil into a container to start my spring greens.

I buy a simple tray, punch some holes in the bottom. I put this tray in one of those fruit boxes from a visit to Costco, the box wrapped in plastic, and with some newspaper between it and the tray, to absorb excess water. I mix potting soil and top soil. Made three rows of indentations. One I filled with mesclun mix, one with arugula, and one with Tuscan kale. I am trying kale for the first time this year.

I will see how they do in the east window of the kitchen, and if they need more sun, I will take them up to that large south facing window in our bedroom. The largest and brightest winter spot in our house. Strange place for plantings, but it does work well. Last year I got great results with the mesclun.

As for other spring planting plans, I saw that Tractor Supply has a greenhouse for sale. A small one, build it yourself. Just enough for a few trays of plants. We may check it out and that is where I will start some of the herbs, and where I will harden the heirloom tomatoes. I have my plans in my head, now if it really is getting to be spring, the planting will begin.

Really, I don’t think we got much of a winter. A little cold. Really rainy. Snow that disappeared in a day. Not bad.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Weather and tagged Food, gardening, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

How Did That Chicken Turn Out?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

For my Winter Eat Local Challenge. The other day I posted about the pastured animal calendar and the dry rub chicken recipe in it.

I had a picture of the TLV Farm chicken marinating but didn’t put up the finished product. It came out looking like this.

The chicken went into a 300 degree oven, for about an hour. I put veggies bought at England Acres under the chicken. A large onion, two large carrots and some purple potatoes. Most of the veggies came from Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, wholesaled to England Acres.

The other star of this dinner was the salad. Greens from East Rivendell. The golden beets were from Roots Market. Goat milk feta and red onion from England Acres. The dressing. Homemade black cherry yogurt dressing. Pequea Valley Farms yogurt. This yogurt is by far the best we have ever tasted. I buy it at England Acres by the quart. It never lasts very long, but I did make dressing from it.

We split up this salad to have after the chicken and veggies. Drizzled the dressing over it. Still have a little left for later this week. Awesome dressing.

As for dinner with the local wine. A 2011 Linden Avenius Sauvignon Blanc. This sauvignon blanc is more of the fume blanc style than the style of New Zealand, which is citrusy and acidic. Lovely pairing.

Saturday night’s dinner turned out very well. Mostly local, with some spice, herb and oil exceptions as usual. That yogurt is just beckoning me. I have an unopened container of blueberry up in the fridge. I think I will make it dessert tonight, with a few of those candied walnuts from the Olney market.

If you can find the yogurt, you have to try it. I promise. You will never want grocery store yogurt again.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

At the Market in February?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yesterday morning we headed out to Olney to check out the market and see what the vendors have in late February. It is nice to have a market near us. No need to drive to Silver Spring, Tacoma Park or Dupont Circle on the weekends.

This market is a farmers, artists, and artisan/food vendor market. In the winter it is located in and outside of the Sandy Spring Museum on Rte. 108 not far over the Montgomery County line. About ten miles from us.

Sunday was lovely. Lots of vendors were outside taking advantage of the sun.

Homestead Farms of Faulkner MD, and Orchard Breeze of Ortanna PA were two of the farms outside. I picked up greens from Homestead and grilling sausage from Orchard Breeze. I also got a few other items, butternut squash and greenhouse tomatoes out there. Went inside and found apples from Falcon Ridge. This is their last week until spring. I was looking for Our House for their organic micro greens but they only come biweekly.

Here is what I brought home.

The candied walnuts were from a vendor outside, whose name escapes me, and who isn’t on the web site. So were the spiced nuts and wasabi peas. They were the little treat for my cocktail hour last night.

As for the greens, I got some extra arugula to go with the winter mix. Filled up the salad spinner, and we are good for the week.

There is something about just picked greens. Makes me think of spring. I will be starting my indoor greens box, up in the south facing window of our bedroom. It gets the most sun to start the seeds. Last year I had a great early start.

Next week my CSA begins again. Can’t wait until my first visit to pick up at Breezy Willow. I am plowing through the freezer, using up last year’s bounty, and want those fresh veggies back in our diet.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Paper Calendars

Posted on February 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

I am surprised that there are still lots of paper calendars out there. Many of us have changed to using our tablets or smart phones to record upcoming events. But, my husband still likes that calendar hanging on the side of the refrigerator. I picked up a very interesting free calendar out at England Acres last month. This is a new one for me.

I am learning all sorts of facts about locally pasture raised meats from this one. Like the February fact.

Each month also includes recipes, so today using one of my TLV chickens, I am making this recipe. Should be a good dinner as the rub smells wonderful, and the white BBQ sauce tastes really nice. It has been in the fridge since last night.

I am using half a chicken so I cut the amounts in half. The chicken looks like this as it is marinating.

Here is the recipe for the BBQ sauce. This is really good sauce. Strange combination but it works.

I know I cut off the end of the page in the pic. Just brush it on during the last ten minutes of cooking. I also cut this recipe in half since I have half a chicken. Use a little more Old Bay if you want a spicier sauce.

Tomorrow I will be posting my weekly Eat Local meal, and this will probably be it. There are other really good recipes on this calendar, that may show up on my table soon.

hocofood@@@

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

Wegmans Marketing Strategy

Posted on February 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

What is it with the aggressive mailings from Wegmans? They have upped the ante in their latest mailing to the all anonymous “residents” in this area, at least. Don’t know where they are mailing closer to the store but we are 16 miles away from them.

It used to be $30 in coupons. Now, they have increased the value. And, changed from a free item to a $5 coupon, plus the other two $1 coupons, weekly.

Still, $7 savings barely will cover the gasoline to drive from west county to Wegmans, so is it worth it? 30-40 miles round trip depending on where you live. Most of us out here don’t drive energy efficient mini vehicles. We have a pickup and a couple of SUVs, since we get more snow and ice, and we have to haul much more than when we lived in the city. For us, 1 1/2 gallons of gas would be what it would take just to run to Wegmans to pick up those few items. $6-7 worth of gas.

Since most of the coupon items don’t interest us, it is only the $5 one that is a draw. I have to admit, though, that we will drive further to buy from our local farmers, than to go to a grocery store.

As for our coupons, when I get to Columbia for car repairs, dental work, or doctor appointments, I would use some of these coupons. For things like the coffee packs, better pricing than Costco for this San Francisco Bay.

If I remember correctly, these K cups are $32.99. With a $5 coupon, they are seriously cheaper than anywhere else to buy K cups.

Hmmm, maybe worth it to go once or twice in the six weeks. Dental appointment next week. Car maintenance next month. A very good price on coffee. Otherwise, not worth the gas consumption to grocery shop there.

I do appreciate the place, but it isn’t my weekly place to shop.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Commentary, Food, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, foodie, Howard County, wegman's, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Costco Stock Up Run

Posted on February 20, 2013 by AnnieRie

I almost titled this post, you can’t get there from here. It seems there is no direct way for us to get over to Costco from where we live. So, I noticed I am not using them for many of my purchases, just because of the time it takes to navigate through Columbia. No direct way from west county. I end up using Rte. 108 all the way around to go in the back way through Lark Brown to avoid the delays on the other roads.

That means I really stock up when I go there. Very little food these days though. It seems to be my Go To place for toiletries, paper goods, spices, oils, chicken broth, printer cartridges, and my personal favorite ridiculously expensive item, Sonicare toothbrush heads. Why in the world do they cost so much? I made sure I got enough olive oil, nuts, garlic powder and chicken stock, the low sodium one that I like to use for making couscous and risotto. Hopefully it will be another 3-4 months until I need to go back.

The only real food items I bought, and this is indicative of how we have changed our eating habits, were lemons, limes, Meyer lemons, oranges, and “WOOHOO” I found one of those lovely large ends of wild ahi. My one huge splurge for raw fish, and I love getting the end piece to portion out and make 4-5 meals from it.

Two pounds. I ended up making three vacuum seal bags out of it. Two have those perfect thick filets and one has about a pound of the under side and the very bottom. The large one will make one of my slow cooked oven braised in tomatoes and olive oil, Tuscan style tuna — which will serve us for two meals. The smaller ones will be pan seared, maybe coated with sesame seeds and a little garlic.

Now that I have the vacuum sealer from my brother, I know the freezer won’t dry out or burn this fish. It was really easy to make the bags. I am really liking this machine.

I have learned a little trick with the 11″ roll. Cut a short piece of it. Turn it sideways and seal the open two sides, making a fully sealed plastic pouch. Now, cut off one of the “permanent” sealed edges, to get a long thin bag.

This puts the white strip for writing on the bottom instead of the side, and you use less plastic for smaller items. You need that three inch section to go into the machine. Why waste 3 inches by 11 inches to put it in horizontally, when you only vacuum and seal on the three inches by five or six inches. You get much more mileage out of the roll, doing it this way.

The thin seals made by the machine are now on the sides, and the thick original seal is on the bottom.

I ended up with three nicely portioned bags, one to be taken out and used this weekend, the others to stay fresh in the freezer for weeks.

Since this worked so well, I may be getting some large packs in the future of scallops, and make them into single serve portions. I also can’t wait for summer, when I can freeze fruit from Larriland.

hocofood@@@

Garlic. Scape. Pesto.

Posted on February 17, 2013 by AnnieRie

Wonderful stuff. Even when it was frozen. It screams springtime. Makes me anticipate the coming of spring in just a few weeks.

I defrosted this pesto to have with dinner tonight. Six cubes of it from one of the freezer containers. Half was for dinner tonight and the other half for some pasta tomorrow. I have one more plastic container full of this pesto, still in the freezer. Come on springtime, so I can make some more.

I made the pesto, poured it into ice cube trays, froze it, then stored it in plastic. But now that I have those vacuum sealers I may do something different next year. I love garlic scapes. Never knew what they were until I got into the CSA, and until I saw them at the Howard County Farmers Markets. Next year I will be buying more, harvesting a few dozen of my own, and getting them from the CSA. All will go into making this lovely pesto.

These are garlic scapes. You cut them off so the garlic puts more energy into the heads of garlic than into the flower. They are more delicate than garlic cloves. Mix a cup of scapes with half a cup of parmesan and half a cup of pine nuts. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to the blender or processor until you get the right consistency. Use as soon as you can, or freeze, or put in a mason jar with a coating of olive oil, in the fridge for a week, no more. If you can keep it that long.

I use it on all sorts of stuff. Flatbread. Pizza. Pasta. Crostini. Veggies. Potatoes. Tonight it went on veggies and potatoes, served with England Acres petit filet mignons.

This was my Sunday night Eat Local Winter Dinner. Local beef. Potatoes from EA as well. Veggies from the freezer. The last from almost 10 months ago, in our winter CSA. I found them in the bottom. They, luckily, were still good. My pesto. The only nonlocal items were the spices, balsamic and the olive oil they were cooked in. Pan seared the steaks, then added oil and balsamic and finished in the oven. Steamed the veggies. Defrosted the pesto. Microwaved the potatoes, then added them to the steak pan to brown up in the oven.

Easy and good. Really easy. How hard is it to steam veggies, nuke a few potatoes, sear a steak and pop it in the oven. Dinner in less than 30 minutes.

hocofood@@@

Shopping at the Farms

Posted on February 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last winter I had a CSA and we did Silver Spring, Dupont Circle and Tacoma Park markets to get my local items for my winter challenge. I thought nothing of driving into DC or the suburbs to get fresh foods locally grown. At the time, I was unaware of the year round farm stores that are actually closer to me, and are now where I get my meats, produce and locally produced items like bread, milk, eggs and honey.

Every other week I head out to England Acres to get dairy, meat, winter veggies and fresh greens. Also, apples and sometimes citrus. Judy gets high tunnel microgreens and winter greens from a farm in Damascus, East Rivendell Farm.

I will be heading over to check them out some day probably a Friday when they are open. For me to add a farm to my local resources list, I like to visit and see what they have. I love the greens from East Rivendell. Today I picked up some winter salad mix, and a bag of red chard at England Acres. I believe both of them were brought in from East Rivendell. Like these greens a few weeks back.

The mix I got today includes some lovely baby dinosaur kale. I also picked up the Baby Bellas again today. And, some carrots that Judy orders from Lancaster Farm Fresh, the coop that supplies my summer CSA. The carrots are so sweet in the winter. My favorite time to buy them.

This week I made lots of soups and the lasagna, so we are eating leftovers until tomorrow night. Then, I will be making my winter weekly Eat Local Dinner, using two little 5 oz. filets I got from Judy today. We were talking out at the farm about whether I should order a side of lamb. She will be selling sides and whole lamb packages. In March and in May. After that, no fresh lamb until the fall.

I find it interesting to get meat from the local farmers. Chickens available only from May until late fall. Lamb available winter and early spring. Seasonal influences based on when the animals are ready to process. If you have never bought or cooked with locally raised, farm fresh meats, you don’t know what you are missing. Just like local eggs and local produce, that freshness and taste are unmistakable.

Only three weeks to go until my Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA starts. Still happily eating from the freezer, the pantry and a couple of trips a month to the farmstands. Can’t believe how little I get from grocery stores these days. I asked my husband last week to stop at the store for the few items I can’t get at markets, like coffee creamer, extra light olive oil for cooking and dishwasher detergent. When your total gasoline points for the month are 39 from Giant Food, you know you have changed your buying habits.

As for CSAs, the local ones are filling up quickly. Look over at localharvest.org if you want to get the freshest produce and fruit weekly. There are all sorts of sizes and types now being delivered to pick up spots all over Howard County.

hocofood@@@

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