Tag Archives: local businesses

Food Safety

Posted on May 10, 2016 by AnnieRie

Raise your hand if you were one of the millions contacted that you had bought possible listeria contaminated foods. That would include me. The ORGANIC edamame from COSTCO. Bought in 2014. Yep, it took two years for them to figure out they had a problem.

And people wonder why I stopped buying as much processed food. Why I run from my CSA to Friends and Farms to get most of the basic food we cook and eat. Why I do pick your own farm food, and process it myself.

We have seen three different recalls in May. CRF frozen vegetables and fruits from everywhere, it seems. Rice from Trader Joes and “pictfresh” veggies at Harris Teeter. Nature’s Promise at Giant Food. Around here these stores provide most of the pwople who live in the area with their weekly groceries.

I wonder why we have all these regulations driving our small local farmers crazy, while we allow mega producers to go TWO YEARS with possibly contaminated food.

Thankfully, that edamame didn’t make us sick. And, we haven’t bought grocery store frozen food in quite a while.

I have become convinced that the closer we remain to the source of our food, the better we have it. Since that “organic” label isn’t a guarantee that you get better quality, I think I will rely on knowing where my food originates.

The Amish cooperative that gives us much of our food has that motto. Along with this philosophy.

If we support our local farms and farmers, who feed their families with the same food they sell us, we wouldn’t have to worry about the industrial processing which may or may not contaminate our food.

It’s not as easy to take time to buy from small farms and producers, but at least you have a face to match to the food you buy.

Join a CSA if you want to take more control of the vegetables you get. Find a local meat producer to have fresher meat without hormones, antibiotics or questionable handling. Pick your own, at places like Larriland.

And, by all means, don’t just assume because it’s organic, that it’s better. Farms around here take great care in growing food without undue use of harmful pesticides. They are an affordable alternative to mega-company organic stuff that costs more without being any better.

Mother’s Day Weekend

Posted on May 5, 2016 by AnnieRie

Interesting and exciting things to do with mom.

Want to do something new? Not just that breakfast in bed thing?

Look enticing? A Mother’s Day tea and scones social with the bonus of garden tours. At the Howard County Conservancy this Saturday. Sign up is here.

Or, a Sunday visit to a working farm. With an opportunity to make a flower arrangement, and take a hayride, and also, bring a picnic for the family. At Sharp’s Farm.

I suggest making this simple salad for mom, and bringing it to a picnic wherever you can.

This salad is simple. Arugula. Marcona almonds. Strawberries. Berry vinaigrette. Pepper. The vinaigrette is from Breezy Willow. Arugula and strawberries from my Friends and Farms baskets. Almonds, Costco.

For other options to visit, there is always Brighton Dam, for the azalea gardens.

Or, the Sheep and Wool Festival. The largest we have heard of. We have to brave the traffic and visit the festival on Sunday.

Don’t just settle for a boring breakfast or brunch. Get out there and support local businesses and give mom something different.

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Posted in Community, Family, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Local Businesses and tagged community, family, farms, Food, Howard County, local businesses, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Healthier Options

Posted on May 3, 2016 by AnnieRie

I found a new recipe today, to use my spinner full of spinach.

Spinach and cannellini bean dip. No cheese. No cream. Really great tasting. The perfect dip to serve at a Mother’s Day picnic. You should be able to find baby spinach at one of the farmer’s markets. If not, I think this recipe could be easily adapted to use arugula, or baby turnip greens, or garlic greens.

The greens are wilted in a pan that contains two minced cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil. I used a locally sold one. From the Breadery. An arbequina. The recipe calls for twelve ounces of baby spinach.

I just used fresh spinach from my Friends and Farms basket. The garlic came from there also.

Wilt it down. Meanwhile, rinse and drain a can of cannellini beans. Dump the beans, a tablespoon of balsamic, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, some salt and pepper and another tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a food processor.

Add the wilted spinach, watch the processor steam up from the heat (they do say to let the spinach cool a bit), and pulse it until it is smooth and creamy. Serve it with bread, with vegetables, with crackers. Or, like I may do tomorrow night, serve it on chicken.

I found the recipe on my Food Network App. It’s from Everyday Italian. This one is a keeper.

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

Shopping at Friends and Farms

Posted on April 28, 2016 by AnnieRie

Somewhere along the line, we reduced our reliance on grocery stores and increased what we bought from our CSA and our regional food bag.

Like our combinations at Friends and Farms.

The Protein and Dairy bag.

Today we got monkfish, ground chuck, eggs, cheese and turkey filets. Instead of milk, I pick extra produce. Today it was arugula.

Arugula was also in my sample produce bag, which I went on line to choose. My CSA doesn’t start until next week so I went on line to order a produce bag.

One with a protein option. Shrimp.

You can customize all kinds of combinations with this company. And buy extras at the warehouse.

Like yogurt and ice cream and apples and rice. Meat options too, which I saw on the blackboard. Whole chickens. Beef brisket. Specials every week as they try to keep the inventory in the freezer at a minimum.

Most of our food comes from here, and our CSA. No recalled foods from small local suppliers. No vegetables with possible listeria contamination. No meat products with wood, metal, plastic or whatever in them. I am a true believer in buying from small local companies, and knowing who processes your food.

Just to show how easy it is to come home and make an awesome dinner.

I sautéed that monkfish. Added it to a skillet of rice and vegetables.

Made a fish stew that will go into my regular rotation. It was that good.

This was simple. Yesterday I made a couple of cups of rice in my rice cooker. The leftovers from dinner become an addition to tonight’s dinner. I sautéed onions, garlic, and asparagus in olive oil. Added a container of crushed tomatoes. A container or spicy kale and bean soup. A teaspoon of sugar. A half teaspoon of salt. A splash of wine. After sautéing the monkfish I finished it in this mix.

Served with this.

A locally produced merlot.

Between the local markets, farms, CSAs and Friends and Farms, I don’t need to go to grocery stores. Unless I need toilet paper.

Yeah I forgot to photograph the final dish. It was served over arugula. Which was in my produce bag and my sample bag.

A double dose of arugula.

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged CSA, Food, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Hoppy Easter

Posted on March 26, 2016 by AnnieRie

As the Easter Egg hunts, and egg rolling events accumulate this weekend, we have yet to establish if there really was an egg laying hare, aka “Oschter Haws” as the Germans called it. You have to admit, for those of us scientifically inclined, it is mind boggling to contemplate bunnies laying eggs.

I did dye eggs this year. Kept some older ones around, to be used for display purposes, so I cheated and used the Paas dyes.

Brown eggs are always interesting to dye. And, the slightly speckled eggs come out very nice. I should have done the natural thing and made dyes from our red cabbage, or from the turmeric in my spice cabinet, but with all the painting and sanding and hammering this week, I was surviving in a corner of my kitchen.

They are done, more or less. Just some carpentry and plumbing to finish. I even got my grandmother’s china back into her cabinet in the dining room. Just in time to make the bone in ham from the CSA last week.

Traditions for the holidays? Do you have them? Are they ecofriendly and healthy, or are some of them bad for you but you do them anyway. One of ours is the ceremonial Peeps. Has to be just one small box. The other one, Rhebs Candy.

Who hasn’t been in that long line to pick up candy, up off Wilkens Avenue by St. Agnes Hospital. When we were young, my Dad brought the candy home from their stall in Lexington Market, which closed down in 2008. You can get the candies ordered online now and have them sent to you, but going into the store, smelling the chocolate, and picking out your own assortment was a real treat.

Well, I need to stop reminiscing and get a few things done for Easter. While putting the rooms back in order, hanging pictures and curtains, and finishing up from the six weeks spent making half the house look great.

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Posted in Family, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature and tagged family, Food, holidays, local businesses, Locavore, nature, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

Even More Carrots

Posted on March 24, 2016 by AnnieRie

Friends and Farms must have been spying on me. They knew I liked carrots and gave me more of them in these week’s Protein and Dairy bag. Why are there carrots in a protein bag? Because we don’t do milk, and I substituted produce.

For us, this $43 a week food source provides us with almost all the meat, fish, and eggs that we use in our cooking. They have expanded this option, giving us 5-6 pounds of premium fish and meat every week.

I like having local sources. Not getting irradiated or artificially colored beef.

It’s a good deal for the money. Today we got a T-bone steak.

Country spare ribs.

Split chicken breasts.

Bacon.

Eggs.

If you are “less meatarians” like we are, you can feed two people with this option. Easily. I try to make meat be a small portion of the plate.

We do so many things differently these days. We make egg salads, chicken salads, process the bacon to be used on multiple meals.

Consider what we do. Protein, one quarter of the plate. Carb, one quarter. Vegetables, half the plate.

And look into Friends and Farms, if you live around here. They are flexible with lots of options to choose.

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

More Carrots

Posted on March 23, 2016 by AnnieRie

Every time my CSA gives us another batch of carrots in the winter, I think of Hocoblogs and Jessie.

Why? Because that is the name of the Burning Man camp where Jessie is the “mom”, who feeds and nurtures them. Like she nurtures the hundreds of bloggers from our county who are members of the Hocoblogs community.

I am reminded again of our community when it is announced that we are having another get together. The latest one crossing my inbox is the invite to the Horse Spirit Art Gallery in Ellicott City. We are lucky that we still have an old town Main Street around here. Where you can stroll and eat, wine and dine, find eclectic gifts, while supporting local businesses. A Friday night, 5-7, after which you can check out the local restaurants, pubs and wine bars.

Our last foray into old EC was also at a local gallery, StillLife. At that gathering, we met the owners of Horse Spirit, who were leasing space up at Westwood on Triadelphia (my neck of Howard County).

I am looking forward to attending the April 15th event. Hopefully, I will have gotten my taxes done. Now that I have a bright clean new foyer, I am looking to add a locally inspired piece to it.

I wonder if there’s a still life of carrots?

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Posted in Community, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses and tagged art, community, hobbies, hoco loco, hocoblogging, Howard County, local businesses. Bookmark the permalink.

One Fish, Two Fish

Posted on March 17, 2016 by AnnieRie

This is a post about fish. Fresh fish. The fish of my childhood.

I know I was supposed to cook sausage today to go with my colcannon, but I forgot we were getting whole bronzini from Friends and Farms. And when you get fresh whole fish, you grill them immediately.

What is bronzini? Or branzino? Or bronzino? A European sea bass, a good alternative on the Monterey Aquarium Seafood Watch List.

This week, two whole bronzini were in our basket. Not for the squeamish. Whole fish is an adventure and a real pleasure, when grilled to perfection.

Falling off the bone. Tender, juicy, with crispy skin.

Simply prepared. Inside. Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, lemon and parsley. Grilled at a roaring hot temperature. . Served with a Sauvignon blanc, and that colcannon. Plus, a simple grill of a zucchini and a couple of Campari tomatoes.

They were basted with a Balsamic vinaigrette.

Our fresh seafood comes every other week from Reliant Seafood in Jessup. Just behind the retail/wholesale supplier at Wild Seafood, where many of us go for crabs, shrimp and other delectable fish. Friends and Farms uses Reliant to supply them daily with incredibly fresh seafood. No smell. No slime. Absolutely some of the best fish we have ever had, other than the rainbow trout I caught decades ago in the southwest. Nothing like really fresh fish.

Oh, and the colcannon was excellent, as well.

The Dirt List

Posted on March 14, 2016 by AnnieRie

Just up the road a bit, in Philly, there is an amazing restaurant called Vedge. I’m not sure when I first heard about it, maybe one of my magazines, or Chopped, or a random blog post somewhere.

I do know I love their recipes in their book. Like this one. I stumbled across this article recently and ended up buying the book online. For $9.99, it now resides on my iPad to inspire me when my CSA box comes.

Why? Because our Amish food cooperative CSA supplies restaurants, hospitals, schools and grocery stores within a 150 mile radius of the 100+ Amish farms who are members of this organic cooperative. I viewed, a while back, the Penske video by the general manager of Lancaster Farm Fresh, Casey Spacht. Casey had this vision, and worked with a small number, at the start, of Amish farmers to make it come true.

I also found, while reading my cookbook that the “dirt list” at the restaurant is inspired by those same vegetables that come in my weekly CSA. Baby Hakurei turnips. Chinese broccoli. Salsify (I am bummed, we haven’t gotten salsify in ages, it all must go to the restaurants).

Other local restaurants use the coop too. Like Woodberry Kitchen, in Baltimore. And, probably Great Sage, since the coop delivers to Roots. We are lucky that our CSA is supported year round, even when we don’t get the minimum 30 members in the winter. Why? Because the truck also delivers to Roots, MOM’s, Friends and Farms, to name a few of their local wholesale customers.

I do love this CSA for its uniqueness. They offer some really off the wall vegetables. It isn’t a CSA for the carrot, corn, romaine crowd. You have to want escarole, watercress, purple kohlrabi, bitter fruit, and other exotic things. You have to learn to be creative. You have to have a passion for discovery, and you have to love vegetables enough to want to use large amounts of them in your cooking. Even the smaller shares give you a great variety. You certainly get your money’s worth.

a medium summer share

I just signed up for my sixth spring/summer share. I dropped back to a medium share, as the large was giving us as much as 25-30 pounds of organic vegetables weekly. The variety was great. And, at $31 a share, it was an immense bargain. The medium share is about $22 a share and will give us 7-9 different items, and about 15 or so pounds a week. Sure beats grocery store pricing for organics.

There are lots of choices for CSAs around here. I just happen to be committed to this small, focused, adventurous group of people who are willing to take on these and more.

And, it all comes down to that dirt list on the Vedge menu. Named because of the freshness, the seasonality, the joy of eating food that was just harvested. The typical turn around time from ground to table for this cooperative is two days.

Check out the book from Vedge. And check out our CSA. If you really love cooking and want a challenge, this is the place to find it. Great vegetables. A book of amazing recipes for inspiration.

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Posted in cookbooks, Farms, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Restaurants and tagged CSA, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, vedge. Bookmark the permalink.

The CSA Update

Posted on March 9, 2016 by AnnieRie

The warm weather makes us all think it’s spring. And with spring, our thoughts turn to fresh vegetables and fruit. Here in the heart of Maryland we have so many options for Community Supported Agriculture and they are evolving to make them more adaptable for our needs.

I wrote about Breezy Willow the other day. Besides them, there are lots of options around here. Love Dove Farm. Gorman Farm. Clark’s Farm. One Straw Farm. TLV Tree Farm. Zahradka Farm. All fairly local.

For us, we still like our Amish option, with all the exotic vegetables. We know it isn’t for everyone, but we like it. I still can buy from the local farms at the markets all summer and fall.

Happily, the CSAs around here are allowing you to choose options. For meat. For eggs. If you haven’t considered buying locally and helping a farm get money early in the year, keeping them from having to borrow money early in the season maybe you should check out the options and help them stay healthy. If you don’t live around here, you can check out Local Harvest and find one near you.