Tag Archives: Howard County

Three More Days into Buying Locally

Posted on July 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

The nine days will be finished tomorrow. The other two posts for how I started have shown it is simple to find good food from around the Howard County area, by shopping at farm stands and the markets.

Here is the update for Wednesday through Friday. Does farming include crabs?

We did get a few to have as an appetizer Friday night. This is with local lamb from England Acres, served with chocolate stripes tomatoes from my garden coated with a gooey smoked cheddar from Eve’s Cheese.

And yes, I did char the lamb while searing it, but the inside remained a lovely pink. That was dinner Friday night, after the crab appetizer.

Thursday we grazed on homemade salads. Cucumber salad from the garden, with onions from Butler’s Orchard. Ratatouille also included one of their candy onions. The watermelon is from Catonsville market, and feta from Bowling Green Farms.

The colorful potato salad included CSA potatoes and green beans, and was finished with hard boiled eggs from TLV Farms.

In my CSA post prior to this one I talked of making gazpacho on Wednesday which showed up for dinner that night, along with the other two burgers from England Acres farm, and corn from their farm.

Three days. Three dinners. Lots of local foods. Here it is Saturday night and there will be local salad and maybe a dessert if I get the peaches done. The peaches were bought this morning from Lewis Orchards at the Glenwood market, along with some just picked spring mix from Breezy Willow. Both will serve in some way in dinner tonight.

It is one of the pleasures of living here. Hitting the market to see what looks good, and bringing it home to have for dinner the same day.

hocofood@@@

Midway Through Buy Local Week

Posted on July 25, 2012 by AnnieRie

And how am I doing? It is so easy to make things from the farmer’s markets in the area. Summer goodness in every bite. Monday night these were the star of the meal. We did have a small naan pizza that I added ratatouille as a topping.

Local corn and my tomatoes

The corn was from England Acres. The goat cheese in the salad was Firefly Farms Allegheny Chevre, picked up at Atwater’s in Catonsville while I was buying bread. Tomatoes and basil from my garden. All my vegetable and herb plants were bought at farmstands, farmer’s markets, local farms or nurseries. That is an easy way to support the farmers. Buy plants at the Howard County markets in the spring, instead of Home Depot.

As for Tuesday, we went to an amateur radio club picnic at Centennial. The dish I took was my infamous watermelon, feta and mint salad. I forgot to take pictures. Here is an earlier version.

Watermelon, feta and mint salad

Watermelon was bought at the Sunday Catonsville market. Feta was not Bowling Green as I didn’t get there in time. You can easily make this salad after a visit to one of the county markets. Bowling Green Farms feta is awesome.

We also took England Acres ground beef to make hamburgers, and topped them with Eve’s Cheese smoked cheddar, bought at England Acres Farm Store in Mt. Airy. There are no pictures from the picnic since I forgot my camera. Just the package that is in the freezer of the same ground beef patties we used last night.

Local meats have become very easy to find these days. Besides England Acres, I buy much of my meat from TLV at the Howard County farmers markets. Like bacon, and chicken.

They go to almost every market from Wednesday to Sunday across the county. Freshly processed free range meat is so much better tasting. It is worth it to buy. The only place they don’t sell is Thursday East Columbia.

If you want another local treat worth the effort, search out local eggs.

The little ones are pullets from England Acres, hand picked right out of the basket the day that the hens laid the eggs. The really large one is an extra large from my dozen last week from TLV, bought at the hospital market.

The eggs were in my zucchini fritters earlier this week, and I made a frittata Saturday for breakfast, that also fed us lunch Monday.

You have Thursday through Sunday to stop at one of the local markets in the county and support Buy Local Week.

hocofood@@@

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

Taking the Buy Local Pledge

Posted on July 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

Maryland has been promoting the Buy Local Challenge for five years now. The Governor hosted the Kick Off picnic, last week.

It is easier these days to participate in the challenge. What with all the farmer’s markets in the area, the farm stands, the local CSAs, and stores stocking MD farmer’s items, you can find enough local items to complete the challenge. One item a day for nine days from a local source. July 21st through the 29th.

The challenge is promoting Maryland farms, and you will find VA, WV and PA farms at our markets, so do they count or not? For my purposes if they are participating in our markets, and are close enough for them to drive here and sell, I am not going to be that parochial about it. But technically, this challenge is promoting Maryland agriculture so I will try to identify the sources for what I choose.

My sources will be on my Local Resource page, updated as I find more local sources.

Saturday Dinner: The corn is from England Acres near Mt. Airy. The cippolini onions are from Butler’s in Germantown, MD. The lima beans were bought at Jenny’s Market but I don’t know their source. The filets were bought at Boarman’s in Highland, not local beef but a local butcher.

Sunday Dinner: Included tomatoes from my garden, and tzatziki made with my cucumbers. Why is this local? The plants and plugs were bought at Sharp’s Farm in Howard County MD, in April, and planted in my garden. I buy my plants from her farm in order to support her business as a wholesale source of vegetable and flower plants.

The chicken again is from Boarman’s. The zucchini from my CSA, which is sourced from PA farms. The scallions in the fritters are from Love Dove Farms, bought at the Howard County farmer’s market. They are local.

It isn’t that hard to eat locally sourced foods here in Howard County in the summer. If you haven’t signed up to do the challenge, you can still try and eat locally, even if it is just going to the restaurants and ordering from their Farm2Table menu.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, SSFC and tagged buy local challenge, cooking, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA’s, MOM’s, Wegmans, Roots, David’s or Farmer’s Markets

Posted on July 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

As I continue my value of CSA posts to record what we spend on organic veggies in a CSA, I find myself looking at prices around the area. Lots of choices these days in Howard County to eat fresh organic foods. I wonder in the future are there too many, and what may be the fallout? Will some of them fail? Will the surge in interest in eating organic whole foods sustain all these choices?

Yesterday we needed to go to Elkridge library to pick up a book not on the shelves anywhere else in the county. So, I requested two detours on this trip. Tacos at R&R. And, a visit to MOM’S. MOM’s carries a crispbread that I love to take on picnics and spread some good Bowling Green Farms Chesapeake cheese on top of them.

Crispbreads bought at MOM’s organic

I got prices of organic veggies while in the market to compare to what we saw at Wegmans, what we pay for Love Dove Farm, or Breezy Willow at the county farmers markets, and the value of our Sandy Spring CSA veggies that we have prepaid a year’s worth with a set fee.

My value of CSA posts go all over the place to try and compare my savings, but since pricing changes weekly and the sources have vastly different pricing, it is pretty tough to stay on top of what organic veggies cost week to week.

This week I used the pricing from MOM’s to compare. It was a huge savings to belong to a CSA. If one lived in Eastern HoCo, MOM’s and Wegmans are the closest sources of organic foods, and most Wegmans prices were cheaper for produce than MOM’s. Will that difference drive people to shop at Wegmans? Only time will tell.

As for CSA value this week, here is the breakout. I decided to round up by a penny for all the items ending in 99 cents to simplify my accounting. I did not include the holy basil (tulsi) as I have no idea what to use to compare it. So, my total is for eleven of the twelve items in the previous post I wrote Thursday when I picked up the box. The one difficult item in the box is lemon cucumbers, not something you find in stores often.

lemon cucumbers from CSA box

Potatoes $2 a pound. We got 3 pounds, total $6. This is more than they cost at Wegmans for organic.
Red Onion $3 a pound. We received a pound bag, total $3.
Mixed specialty squashes, use zucchini price of $3 a pound and we had one and a half pound, total $4.50.
Cucumbers, $2 a pound, we got 1 1/2 pounds, so $3.
Beets $3 a bunch, total $3.
Italian eggplant, $3 a pound, ours was 12 ounces, so $2.25 total.
Japanese eggplant, these were $4 a pound, and our three totaled a pound, $4.
Heirloom tomatoes were $6 a pound there, I know we find them for $5 at markets, but to use MOM’s, they totaled $6.
White Bell Peppers, MOM’s only had purple for $4 a pound, we got a pound so $4.
Pint of grape tomatoes, $4.
Heirloom carrots $3 a bunch.

Total cost at MOM’s to buy approximately what I received in the CSA box minus the holy basil was $42.75. We pay $29.75 a week. This week’s difference would be $13.00 more if I went to MOM’s to shop.

Cumulative total value saved by joining the CSA is now at $102.80 after eleven weeks, with fourteen to go.

The important question is whether we are actually eating all the things we get, and the answer is yes, for about 90-95% of the items, we either process them for freezing, eat them in two weeks or less, or can them. This week I will be blanching and freezing the remains of the green beans from last week, and making bread and butter pickles from the last of the cucumbers.

I also learned that I can grate, then blanch, then freeze little zucchini packages to use in the winter for chocolate zucchini muffins, or for zucchini fritters. The rest of the zucchini will meet this fate.

The tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and two of the white peppers will make a gazpacho. The other peppers will be blanched and frozen. I know this is time consuming, but definitely cheaper, and healthier than buying ready made processed foods. And cheaper than shopping at the organic markets.

hocofood@@@

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

Holy Basil, Batman!

Posted on July 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Tulsi. Never heard of it until it showed up in our CSA box. Smells interesting.

tulsi aka holy basil

It was one of twelve items in this week’s Sandy Spring CSA box, which was a bit late since the fruit share this week included watermelons. The drivers get way behind the weeks they have to deal with dozens of watermelons that take up lots of space and also take more time to unload. That meant about ten of us were at the pick up point waiting for the truck, and we got to meet one another and talk. Nice to meet our fellow CSAers. Here’s the list, all certified organic with the exception of the onions, which are transitional.

1 Bunch Holy Basil (Tulsi) Lancaster Farmacy
1 Bag Lemon Cucumbers De-Glae Organic Farm
1 Pint Red Grape Tomatoes Freedom Acres Farm
1 Bunch Thumbelina French Heirloom Carrots Farmdale Organics
1 Bag Heirloom Tomatoes Freedom Acres Farm
1 Bag White Bell Peppers Friends Road Organics
1 Bunch Red Beets Sunny Slope Organics
1 Bag Red Onions Sweetaire Farm
1 Bag Japanese Eggplant Maple Lawn Organics
1 Bag Mixed Squash Maple Lawn Organics
1 Bag Red Gold Potatoes Millwood Springs Organics
1 Italian Eggplant Echo Valley Organics

The value post will come this weekend. I need to research the value of lemon cucumbers, and a few other things. The picture.

Week 11 CSA box contents

I am loving the yellow tomatoes, the lemon cucumbers and the white peppers. This looks like definite gazpacho material here.

Additionally, today we stopped at Boarman’s to pick up a few items. Some basic feta for a watermelon, feta and mint salad I want to take to a picnic Tuesday. Some crab cakes and filets. Ice cream. Between Wegmans and Boarman’s, I think I can eliminate Giant Food and Safeway from my life entirely. That would probably not be a bad thing to do, as I am doing well in avoiding those stores.

Now, to decide to do with squash and eggplant, besides ratatouille. Off to look at the linky party at In Her Chucks. There is a huge source of recipes and info from dozens of people who receive CSAs, every week the list grows. It is a great resource. I need to link up my CSA post, once it is published.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged CSA, Food, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

A Window Full of Sunshine

Posted on July 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

Varieties of tomatoes ripening on the sill

This is my favorite view in the kitchen. Dozens of almost perfectly ripe cherry, grape and pear tomatoes all reaching their peak of ripeness in the morning sun.

And, yes there are larger ripe ones these days.

Orange Blossom Tomatoes

Caspian Pink

The Caspian Pink is a new one for me. It looks wonderful, but I did have to pick it a bit early because it was cracking and I didn’t want a storm to water it down.

Detail of small cracks forming on top

I don’t have any chocolate stripes ripe yet, but they are getting close. They have the most tomatoes on each plant so far. I have three plants of them. Crossing my fingers that they ripen before that forecasted four or five days of rain late next week. The rains last year really watered down the flavors of the heirlooms.

Two weeks from this coming Saturday, the Howard County Fair starts. I will be picking which heirloom has the best taste. That is what I will enter. Taste, not looks, does better in the heirloom category.

The sweet olive is my most productive small tomato so far. They are predominant on the windowsill picture above. They also have a wonderful flavor, but cherry and grape tomatoes are judged on looks alone.

Have you ever entered anything in the fair? This year, besides tomatoes, I will again enter herbs. Definitely the basil, but haven’t chosen the other two yet.

African Blue Basil

This year I am also considering entering some of my photographs, particularly my little feathered friends, like these.

Bluebirds Rule the Bath

Put the Fair on your calendar for something great to do. It runs August 4th through 11th. We get a $20 pass for the entire fair and go almost every day. If you want to see a real hoot, go watch the zero turn mower competition. If you want to see something amazing, go watch the 4Hers show their animals.

hocoblogs@@@

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.

Friday Morning Garden Report

Posted on July 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

The tomatoes have finally arrived for real. That is, the big ones, and not just the cherry, grape and plum tomatoes. I harvested the first orange blossom and Amish paste tomatoes the past two days.

Now, I just need those chocolate stripes, or the legend, or great white to ripen, to see what will be submitted to the Fair in three weeks. These tomatoes need to move into high gear. I know they shut down and go into survival mode during excessive heat, which is what they did for those 90-100 degree days we had. After a quick start, they are moving along at a snail’s pace. I did get the first of the red fig tomatoes, a very interesting heirloom I bought from the Howard County Master Gardeners on Earth Day this spring.

The rest of the little tomatoes continue to put out new growth and are giving me a few a day. I got the first green grape tomato today, in the middle of the sweet olive, yellow plum, yellow pear and red figs in the bowl, there is a lone green grape, just about ripe. I pick these just a bit early to minimize pest damage, like stink bugs do.

They will ripen on the windowsill. As for other garden goodies, the stealth cucumbers are still out there. This one was hidden down in a crevice behind all the tomato plants. The vine had climbed over the bunny fence and dropped down into the fence post corner, where it hid until it reached mega size for a pickling cucumber.

We are actually attempting to make this monster into a dill pickle, which should be interesting.

On the flower front, the gladiolus plants are winding down, but hanging in there. The first marigolds have bloomed, and this one was saved after the bunnies chomped it off its stem.

Herbs are doing well in spite of the heat. Hope we get a little more rain to get the gardens around here in better shape again. I know there are water restrictions due to the water main break repairs. That doesn’t bode well for gardens in intense heat. Being on a well with a high water table right now, I am thankful to be able to water the herbs in the pots and keep them going.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, spring flowers, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Tonight We Fiddle, Saturday We Farm, Later We Look for Fairy Houses

Posted on July 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

My volunteering schedule is pretty full this week. We held a planning meeting Wednesday for upcoming events at the Conservancy, and this is the busy part of the summer.

Fiddlers and Fireflies, a picnic with music and crafts, is tonight starting at 6 PM. It costs $10/car, and the music is great. Bring a blanket, chairs and a picnic dinner. The event is held in the lower front yard, where the sisters had their garden.

This Saturday, the 14th, there will be one of the monthly Wonder Walks, that focuses on living and farming on the 230+ acre property. We will be leading groups down and around the buildings and talking about what it was like to live here from the early 1800s until the time that the sisters gave the property to the Conservancy.

Naturalists will be leading groups. The event starts at 10 am, and is no cost. I will be leading a group and we will be visiting the out buildings, the barns, the gardens, and take a walk down to the grasslands to see how the farmers used their land to the best advantage to grow crops and keep their farm animals.

A little farther out this month there will be another special event. Looking for Fairy Houses in the forest. It is on the 28th of July. Another free Wonder Walk that is geared towards the little ones, ages 4-10.

It looks like there’s lots to do around here, and I am certainly not bored in my retirement.

hocoblogs@@@

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!