Tag Archives: local businesses

Feeding My Farmer’s Market Addiction in Silver Spring

Posted on March 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

It’s been two months since I set foot in a farmer’s market. I think I was having withdrawal symptoms, so I ~~coerced~~ persuaded my better half to drive me down to Silver Spring this morning. I can drive now, but can’t carry. I suppose that if I went by myself I might buy less, but there’s no fun in that.

I decided to issue myself a personal challenge. That is, not to set foot in Giant, Safeway, Food Lion or Weis for the next six months unless I absolutely have to. There are just a few things not available elsewhere that I buy in the grocery store.

My goal is to use CSA, farmers’ markets, Boarman’s, local veggie stands, small businesses, family owned businesses (have to say this to sneak in Wegman’s), pick your own farms, and everything else I can think of that will provide me mostly real food instead of processed.

I will keep track of what I do and use the blog to discuss how well I am doing in really changing my diet to eliminate more and more of the processed foods. Today was the beginning of stocking up on fresh foods, and clearing out the pantry and fridge of the processed stuff.

We arrived around 11 am and the first thing you see is the Atwater’s truck.

I had to pick up a loaf of kalamata olive bread to serve with the last chicken noodle soup out of the freezer tonight. We had demolished the two loaves we bought last week in Catonsville, partially by taking some to friends for dinner last night.

We got apples, spring onions and chard from Spring Valley. It is so good to see spring onions. I love them with microgreens, like the ones in yesterday’s CSA delivery. Down to Firefly Farms for cheese, and Mock’s Greenhouses for the wonderful cherry tomatoes, hydroponically grown basil and arugula.

I am going to make my own flatbread dough with the Union Mills flour I picked up at Breezy Willow a while ago, and put arugula, bleu cheese and Boarman’s sausage on it one night next week. The hydroponic greens and the high tunnel cherry tomatoes from Mock’s are a hint of what is to come in summer. The basil is intensely scented, making me want to create a caprese salad if only I had some fresh mozzarella. The tomatoes burst with flavor and you wouldn’t know they were “hothouse” tomatoes unless someone told you.

I was talking to them and yes, they will be a supplier to Wegmans in Columbia just like they are in Frederick. Woo Hoo! Their bibb lettuce is incredibly sweet and delicious but today I already had containers full of greens and spinach at home from the CSA. This week we will be feasting on fresh salads.

Stopped at Garden Path Farms to pick up short ribs to use in the crockpot tomorrow with the chard bought at Spring Valley and the CSA mustard greens.

Soaking cranberry beans from MOM’s overnight tonight, so dinner will be greens, beans and ribs in the slow cooker. I will use the last pint of my turkey stock from the freezer to make this. Another real food dinner made from scratch.

After picking up these goodies, we hit Lebanese Taverna for a kafta sandwich. There are so many interesting restaurants on Ellsworth just behind City Place. Want Pho? Peri Peri? Thai? Lebanese? Potbelly Sandwiches? The list is endless. 100+ restaurants in the surrounding area. Free parking in the Wayne Avenue garage. A Whole Foods across from the parking garage as well in case you aren’t already shopped out.

Take a cooler in your trunk. Hit the market. Next week they go back to spring hours. From 9 am to 1 pm. Have breakfast, brunch or lunch and get in shape for our markets to open in six weeks. Can’t beat fresh veggies, meats, cheeses, eggs and fruit from area farmers.

And follow me on my GGSAC* journey. The *Great Grocery Store Avoidance Challenge*.

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, GGSAC, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Restaurants and tagged cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, GGSAC, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

So What is National Local Mom and Pop Business Day?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Is it just another Hallmark holiday, or what?

I had a draft post I was working on for weeks, that had this time stamp on the draft that sent it to March 18th, when I hit publish. Still need to figure out some of the quirks of WordPress, but I was working on telling the story of using small businesses for most of what we buy. Services and supplies, from people in the county, not from national and international chains.

It is here. Those who subscribe did get it. To update it even more and include food in the mix, I am posting tonight about the local sources of dinner from small, family owned businesses.

We did do one thing today using a mom and pop business. That is, if Cavallero and Company count. My husband has been getting his hair cut by Vince’s shop, from the days they were Rex’s Place. First, Arnold. Now, Wayne. No one else is trusted to cut his hair. Since the late 1970s, I think is when he started with them.

As for the rest of today, I celebrated with a grazing meal tonight. Almost everything on the table was small business.

The salad. Beets, onions and orange from CSA — the oranges come up from a small farm in Florida. Fennel from Roots. Lemon olive oil from St. Helena Olive Oil, CA. USA olive oil, not imported. Woman owned business, that I support wholeheartedly year round.

The cube steak came from Wagner’s in Mt. Airy. The flour from Union Mills. The cole slaw I made using cabbage and carrots from the CSA. The accompaniments were from Cava in Rockville MD. Harissa and tzatziki. Bread from Atwater’s. Butter from Trickling Springs. Wine from Elk Run. No big businesses here. It can be done with just a little effort.

For me, I want to support these businesses all year. Not just for one day. By the way, the wine was awesome. Thanks to Fred and Carol Wilson, who started their winery in the 1980s. This wine, a cabernet, is from 2002. It is ten years old and still full of fruit. Not brown or fading. Just luscious. MD can make really good wines. Supporting people like the Wilsons is something I believe in. They started the very first all vinifera vineyard in MD. Hats off to them for making this lovely wine.

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Scrapple: The Last Frontier

Posted on March 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

OK, I am truly becoming my dad. I have gone over to the dark side and made my own scrapple. But, it isn’t my fault. It is Mark Bittman’s fault. Darn that “How to Cook Everything” App on my iPad.

You see, I needed to make breakfast for the last week of the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. I had one pound left of Woodcamp Farms sausage in the freezer.

I was actually looking to make sausage patties with some interesting seasonings, and maybe do pancakes with the rest of the local buckwheat. But, opening the app and typing in sausage, it came up with lots of boring recipes, and SCRAPPLE!

OK, not everyone loves scrapple, but being almost 100% German background, and growing up with the scent of scrapple a normal Sunday morning wake up call, as my dad fried it up crispy and served it smothered in ketchup, how could I resist making my own.

We used to buy our scrapple at Lexington Market. My dad worked downtown as a policeman, so Saturday he brought home scrapple. Made from whatever was left of the pork. Still, nothing in the grocery stores approaches that scrapple.

I was hooked. I needed to try this. I even made it local. And, you could make it even more local than I did. I had cornmeal on hand. Not from up the road, but from PA. You can get cornmeal from Union Mills in Carroll County. But this is all I had.

This is the cornmeal I used in this killer polenta a few weeks ago. The Bittman recipe calls for grits or cornmeal. We don’t have local grits, so cornmeal it was. It also calls for making a double recipe of the grits. Don’t do it. Too much cornmeal and not enough sausage. Next time I make this I will use about 2/3 to 3/4 of the amount called for in the grits recipe.

You can see when I cut it this morning to fry, there is way too much filler for the pound of sausage. If you are trying to eat less meat, it works but it is off a little on proportions. You can also see the little bits of fresh sage from my herb garden.

Cook it all up with a couple of local eggs, and serve. The recipe is after the pictures below.

It looks pretty good, and it was tasty. My husband thinks it needs a little more kick, but this was an eat local challenge and Tabasco isn’t local. It also fell apart as I was plating it.

Local Sources: Trickling Springs for the butter to fry it. Zahradka Farms CSA eggs. Woodcamp Farm pork sausage. Burnt Cabins Roasted Cornmeal. Sage from my garden.

To make it even more local and mostly from Howard County, use: Bowling Green Farms butter, Breezy Willow eggs, TLV Tree Farm sausage, and Union Mills cornmeal, available at Breezy Willow. This way it would be almost 100% Howard County sourced, with the exception the cornmeal from Carroll County.

The recipe, courtesy of How to Cook Everything –

Make the cornmeal polenta, or use grits. The recipe calls for 5 cups or water, boiling. Whisk in two cups of grits or polenta. I believe you should make this with 3/4 of what they call for. Cook, covered, and occasionally stirring, until smooth. Add water if necessary to keep it from thickening too much. You will know if it is too thick. You can’t stir it. Add salt and pepper and butter to taste while making. Be careful tasting. It is molten.

In the meantime, cook the sausage until done. You need at least two cups of cooked sausage. One pound will just get you there. I would go heavier on the sausage the next time I do this.

Mix the sausage into the polenta and add at least a tablespoon of fresh sage. I used close to two tablespoons, because there was so much polenta made. Maybe grits would cook down more but the polenta was really thick and there was quite a bit of it.

Pour into a buttered loaf pan and refrigerate overnight. Cut in slices and fry in whatever you want. I used butter to keep it local. Serve with eggs, any way. I like sunny side up when I have fresh eggs from the CSA.

My husband had a piece of Atwater’s bread, toasted, with his. I didn’t think it needed the toast, as the scrapple is hearty.

So, Dark Days are done. I made it all the way to the end. Now, it will be easier to cook with local foods as we get into growing season.

Try making scrapple this summer. Everything is right up the road, at our markets in Howard County.

hocofood@@@

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

The Final Week of the Eat Local Challenge

Posted on March 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

In November I signed on to prepare at least one meal a week for sixteen weeks using locally sourced items. Locally being defined as within 150 miles of your home. The Dark Days Challenge is the Title. Over 100 people signed up. About 30-40 of us made it through the challenge.

Highlights to me of my meals included learning to make sweet potato gnocchi, making roasted cornmeal polenta, and using turnips far more than I ever did in the past.

These ingredients produced this soup. Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, apples and turnips. Thick, rich and satisfying.

The South Region, which included participants from MD, VA, NC, SC and TX, was one of the most active regions. Not surprising because it is fairly easy to source local items year round here. The northern participants struggled more.

This last week had a theme for us. Make breakfast. So far, I did eggs one day, but I intend to finish the challenge before Sunday with pancakes and sausage patties. Not going to go out without putting forth some real effort. Eggs are too easy.

In Howard County, we are lucky to have a year round CSA deliver. We also have access to meats and dairy from local farmers. We can also get produce from Amish markets in the area, and three year round farmer’s markets in Tacoma Park, Silver Spring and Dupont Circle. A Saturday morning visit to Silver Spring yielded enough fresh goodness, plus my Friday CSA delivery, to make Giant or Safeway superfluous in my life. Like the week shown below.

Friday Delivery CSA – beets, onion, sweet potatoes, celery, microgreens, broccoli, and Angus ground beef.

Saturday morning at the market – including chorizo, bread, mustard, high tunnel grown tomatoes, bibb lettuce, and not pictured, fresh basil.

Those of us who garden had put aside some frozen or canned items to use. I ran out of almost everything in my freezer, with one pint of turkey stock left. I used my last pickles in egg salad a few weeks ago. I still have half a jar of concord grape jelly from my neighbor, and enough frozen veggie items to make one more batch of veggie stock.

It made me think about what to do in the future. I intend to use Larriland Farms and Butler’s Orchards quite a bit this year to augment my garden and freeze/can items to use. I will also make good use of the summer CSA and farmer’s markets to get items to put away.

Why, you ask? Because, for me, eating fresh foods keeps my allergies at bay. It also limits my exposure to GMO vegetables, and to meats full of antibiotics and hormones. I feel better when I do this. Besides, serving fresh food to my friends and husband, prepared by me with love, is one of the things I enjoy best about being retired. Yum, TLV Farm kielbasa with CSA veggies, Canela bread from Boarman’s, and Black Ankle Syrah. Goodness, from Howard County and the surrounding area. Doesn’t get much better.

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Bread: The Staff of Life

Posted on March 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

I remember when bread started getting a bad rap. All those Atkins followers telling us not to eat it.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I am a bread addict. Give me a good chewy bread, and good cheese, and I am happy. I love all sorts of breads. With butter. With fresh tomatoes. Rubbed with garlic. Grilled. Fried. You name it. I am there.

Around here in Howard County, we are lucky to have quite a few artisan bread makers within a 15 mile radius of most of the population. The Breadery, Bonaparte, Great Harvest, and Atwater’s all very near. Canela, even though from Gaithersburg, is available in stores like Roots, MOM’s and Boarman’s. Breezy Willow has Great Harvest making bread for them. Everywhere you turn, good, fresh bread.

Why buy that spongy, sickly looking stuff in grocery stores? Sink your teeth into something with substance and taste. I mean, does Wonder Bread even have a taste? How about a really dense chewy spelt bread, made with PA spelt, fully organic.

I am partial to Atwater’s because of their commitment to buy locally. Their wheat isn’t shipped from Montana, or somewhere else far from here. They have a sources page that will tell you who their suppliers are. And, the bakery itself in Catonsville is a great place for lunch. Right up the street from the Catonsville Farmer’s Market, where they also participate. Besides, we hit Catonsville quite a bit to get to relatives’ houses.

Spelt walnut bread from Atwater’s. South Mountain Creamery eggs and butter. A true locavore’s breakfast.

Sunday we went to get our Atwater’s fix, bringing home two loaves of bread, one country white and one rosemary Italian, and a ginger molasses teacake.

Markets start in a few weeks. Can’t wait to get some fresh baked goodness every week.

hocofood@@@

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Frost Happens!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

It never seems to fail. The tulips come up. The herbs start growing. Thankfully, I didn’t transplant the lettuces yet.

And then, we get a frost warning. I had to cut some herbs and bring them in, so I could cover the rest.

Covering the garlic and herb beds.

And the tulips in the front of the house, just the ones that haven’t opened yet.

The ones that had fully opened or that were all by themselves, not worth spending the time to cover the single bulbs, came in to be the centerpiece on the dining room table. I usually do this later in the spring, but you can’t beat Mother Nature.

The temps will hit the 20s here tonight. Here’s hoping it doesn’t mess up the strawberries and the fruit trees coming along nicely for spring.

As well as the grape vines. Budbreak has occurred in some areas due to the warm spring weather. Cross your fingers for the farmers spending a tough night protecting their plants.

As for me, I am just happy the weeping cherry hit its peak and is already shedding its flowers. I love it when it reaches that intense pink and white loveliness.

The Art of Stewardship

Posted on March 25, 2012 by AnnieRie

All Things Round.

This year’s theme for the juried art show at the Howard County Conservancy.

At the auction on the 19th of April, you may find yourself in a bidding war with me for this piece. This porcelain disk with spirals is stunning in its simplicity. It is an eye catcher when you walk in the room. As are quite a few other pieces.

The details in some of the paintings:

Greg Mort, one of the judges, has a few pieces for sale in the show as well. He will be signing his books at the auction, as will Anne Raver, garden columnist for the New York Times, another of the judges. The third judge, Rebecca Hoffberger, is well known in the area as the founder and director of the Anerican Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

On Wednesdays through Saturdays, when the Conservancy is open to the public, anyone may wander around the Gudelsky Gallery and look at the art from now until April 19th when the auction takes place and the winners are announced. On the 19th, for $10, a wine and cheese reception is open to all who wish to bid, or just take in the art with the artists present to talk about their work. Many of the artists are local, and if you like their style, you may end up finding a source to add locally produced art to your home.

The art show is one of the recurring programs that the Conservancy holds. At least once a month, there is always something going on at the site on Rte. 99 in Woodstock.

If you want to take a walk on a lovely spring day, and stop in to view the art, it is a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. The Conservancy hours are 9-3 Wed-Sat. Call in advance to confirm that no organization is holding a meeting in the Gallery when you want to visit. The grounds are open during daylight hours for those wanting to wander the gardens and grounds.

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Winter CSA Week Thirteen, and Dinner from the Box

Posted on March 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

Over nine pounds of veggies. Six items. $18/week which includes home delivery. This week was one of the heaviest hauls of veggies in the CSA for the winter. Zahradka Farm is a vendor at the Glenwood Farmer’s Market so everyone can partake of their fresh veggies for at least six months a year. Joining their CSA allowed us to experience home delivery for the rest of the year.

The six items are a half share. A full share would have been ten. We choose from an on line ordering form. Over the weekend they put up a list with what is ready to pick. This is what I ordered and received, with weight in ounces after item received:

collard greens (12 oz)
carrots (34 oz)
onions (24 oz)
beets (26 oz)
radishes (14 oz)
new potatoes (40 oz)

We also received skirt steak from JW Treuth butchers, as our weekly meat selection, and this is the week for my biweekly dozen eggs, all colors and sizes.

Some of the eggs are a deep brown, although the pictures don’t do them justice.

I already put one of the carrots in the leftover cabbage from St. Paddy’s Day, with last week’s white potatoes. Topped it with a fresh kielbasa from TLV Tree Farm. They are just down the road from us. We go out to the farm on Saturdays when they are open from 10-2. Last week we picked up this fresh kielbasa. Just like the kielbasa made in my husband’s home town in PA.

I opened a bottle of wine from one of the closest wineries to Howard County, Black Ankle. Interesting that this 2006 Syrah had a musty nose, which disappeared after a while, but I wonder how the other couple of bottles in the cellar are doing. Tasted great, though. I wanted a bigger but not huge wine to stand up to the kielbo and the mustard.

This dinner came from less than 25 miles away, if you discount the ramp mustard, which is from Spring Valley Farm and Orchard, in Augusta WV. I did buy it at Dupont Circle Market, which is 25 miles south of us.

A really tasty dinner, right from our proverbial back yard.

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The Woodstock Snowball Stand is Open!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, spring is definitely here. The Woodstock snowball stand was open when I left the conservancy after our pot luck lunch for the end of volunteer naturalist training.

They opened yesterday. They also are tweeting the flavor of the day, for those of us addicted to their snowballs.

We had to stop and get our first fix of the season, me with spearmint and hubby with egg custard. They make the best flavors, and they are really generous with how much is put into the cup. Tons of flavor. Great marshmallow toppings. They have other stuff there as well, like ice cream.

The stand has been there since 1974. We started going there in 1982. Thirty years of driving up to Woodstock and sitting around enjoying our icy goodness.

Heaven in a cup. At the corner of Old Frederick Rd (Rte 99) and Woodstock Rd.

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Getting My Goat …

Posted on March 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

… or finding ways to live with lactose intolerance. I already carry around little chewable tablets to deal with foods in restaurants and friend’s homes. As well as dealing with my love of cheese in the first place.