Tag Archives: local businesses

The Realities of Renovation

Posted on March 4, 2016 by AnnieRie

Did anyone notice I haven’t been posting? Longer than any absence in my four years of blogging?

Yes, renovating can do that to you. I know why people hate it and avoid it. Despite the glowing pictures shown on DIY reality TV shows. I wish we could all disappear for seven weeks while The Property Brothers make our homes perfect.

I mean, who doesn’t want their front porch to look like this? It did all get to the landfill with certain items put into the building supply trailer, where they can be used for projects. Most of the trash, we paid to dispose of it. Thankfully, with a pickup and a good contractor, we negotiated a rate that saves us money if we dispose of the materials.

As for the rest of the things happening, a big shout out to Bode Floors.

I think my husband’s study is awesome, and the carpet makes the room. I love recommending local businesses here in Howard County, when they are family owned and do a great job.

The study is done, except for drapes. The basement room damaged the most by the water leaking down the walls, is also finished, except for a new light fixture. The basement bathroom is coming along.

We still need a toilet, a vanity, and the molding. The vanity is delayed until the 22nd.

We have learned patience. Things don’t always go as planned. An 18 day job is easily turning into a 25 day job, with the delays, the bad materials, and some electrical issues. I now have three contractors scheduled for a day I was supposed to be available for a Conservancy program. I can’t leave my husband alone to juggle them all.

Doing your own general contracting saves you money, but adds stress to the job. Still, the results are worth it. I just can’t wait until Easter, when hopefully we will be done.

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Posted in Local Businesses, Renovations and tagged local businesses, renovations, Rightsizing. Bookmark the permalink.

Grazing Meals

Posted on February 21, 2016 by AnnieRie

Simple to set up. For those times when maybe you want a leisurely dinner, or you don’t want to cook very much, or you just want to try something different without a major commitment to one item.

Tonight, we did that. Overwhelmed by all the running around to get ready for this week’s projects in house repair and renovation, I just wanted something simple, yet really nice to eat.

Roots Market, Harris Teeter, my CSA, my freezer, and a couple of local wineries came to the rescue.

I’m not sure if anything is as decadent as the contributions from Roots. Their mushroom pate. And their “Indian Candy”, a luscious smoked salmon. These two items were the inspiration today.

The mushroom pate, vegan, made with walnuts, tamari, maple syrup, olive oil and thyme was perfect on their rosemary pistachio crisp breads.

The salmon, served with onion, lemon, capers, and fresh dill, on last week’s bread from She Wolf, courtesy of our CSA. Last week’s bread was a caraway rye.

A plate of raw vegetables, the highlight being one of those watermelon radishes that Lancaster Farm Fresh has delivered twice now in our winter CSA.

Finally, fresh kielbasa from Pennsylvania. The last of the kielbasa purchased a few months ago on a trip to the Pittsburgh area.

grazing dinner 012

The fun part of the meal. Taste testing and comparing two local wines from Virginia. The latest offerings in Sauvignon Blanc from Linden Vineyards, and Glen Manor. Two of our favorite vineyards. Totally different styles. Glen Manor makes theirs in the style of New Zealand. Citrusy. Tart. 2014 was a good year for local wines. Then, there’s the Avenius single vineyard selection from Linden. Shari’s vineyard is situated on flint, giving her grapes the characteristics of a Fume Blanc. With those mineral notes, and much more austere.

It was interesting to compare and contrast how they paired against the three choices for dinner. You can’t go wrong with either wine with the salmon. The Avenius was a better match to the kielbasa. The Glen Manor to the mushroom pate.

If you want a great date night meal, find a couple of bottles of the same varietal wine. Pick up two or three things that go well with that varietal. Have your own grazing meal, relaxing and taking the time to savor the experience.

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Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Controlled Chaos

Posted on February 20, 2016 by AnnieRie

It’s not easy going green, to paraphrase Kermit the Frog. I know why we procrastinate when it comes to home repairs. The chaos is sometimes overwhelming.

We just finished using Dr. Energy Saver to seal our dormer crawl spaces, and condition our attic. A world of difference in the temperatures on our upper floor. We decided to do the Super Attic. Massive difference.

Before.

After.

With a 40 degree difference in temperatures. No more drafts down the stairs. No more cold bedrooms.

We have been slowly working our way through the tasks necessary to make our house “greener”. A warmer, better place to live, while saving energy. It’s been an eleven year journey and we are almost done.

Insulating crawl spaces, too. Before we started the massive painting job. Which will go on for at least a month.

The study is close to being finished. Just need to add the new carpet, now that we insulated under the floor (above the garage).

Dr. Energy Saver in Glen Burnie is part of a national chain. They are one of the sponsors of our county Greenfest, and they do energy audits. They have no idea I am blogging about them, and I don’t take advertising dollars. If you want to go greener, and make your home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, you might want to check them out, wherever you live.

Now, for us, on to the rest of the painting and repairs.

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Posted in Commentary, Howard County, Local Businesses, Renovations and tagged commentary, Howard County, live green, local businesses. Bookmark the permalink.

The Young Farmers

Posted on February 12, 2016 by AnnieRie

It’s been a while since I blogged about our local farming community. A link this morning to a blog about women farmers which is highlighting Nora Crist of Clark’s farm made me think about creating this post.

A few years back I worked on a program out at the Conservancy. Many of the farmers were young, which is a great thing for us. Lowering that age.

It is great to see that enthusiasm and drive.

Besides those farmers I can think of others that are building their businesses in the area. Like Dave and Lydia Liker of Gorman, and Chuck and Nancy Gardetto at Copper Penny. Jen and Jamie at TLV Tree Farm.

Casey and Jason at Breezy Willow.

Can’t forget Courtney and John Dove at Love Dove Farm.

Can you think of others? I know that Alan is working with his parents at Sharps Farm.

Bowling Green. Carroll Farm to Table. Greenway Farms. All of these farms have a younger generation working them. Check them out. Our local dollars make them successful.

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Posted in Commentary, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, West HoCo and tagged community, farms, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Spirits

Posted on February 1, 2016 by AnnieRie

The alcoholic kind of spirits. Like this.

On my mind because of our cabin fever escape up to Bistro Blanc last week, after being snowed in. Their cocktail list is amazing. It all started last summer with that ginger peach mule, but Tuesday night we wanted something that reminded us of summer.

The Denise. Not sure of the origin of the name. But, loved the cocktail. Made us forget there was two feet of snow out there.

We decided to check out the origin of the cucumber vodka. Found a site that identified an organic one. Immediately thought of RED as the place to go to find organic spirits.

Up the way from Roots, Bark, Nest and Great Sage. Our little local corner of mindful buying. The people behind RED were smart. Put an organic, biodynamic, sustainable product business next to all those Conscious Corner businesses.

Interestingly, we had never stopped there. We mostly buy wine, from the local sources, or from our tastings over at Iron Bridge. I’m not a huge beer drinker, but RED has growler choices I find intriguing. From Local brewers like Manor Hill, Jailbreak and Flying Dog.

I went there on a mission to find cucumber vodka.

They had it, and the elderflower liqueur as well. I just needed to add those mixers to it. Now we have some amazing cocktails for those date nights I just blogged about.

If you live around here in Howard County, check out RED. You won’t be disappointed if you are looking for unique spirits, wine and beer.

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Posted in Adventures, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged community, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

60/40

Posted on January 14, 2016 by AnnieRie

So I have a question. What percentage of your dinners are take out, restaurant or delivery? Are you like we were, back in the days when our commute dominated our lives in Howard County? Did you eat out more than half the time, every week? How about changing your percentages, to four days home. A 60/40 mix.

Believe it or not, you can change to eating fresher, more “expensive” food at home. It just takes a little effort to change dining out from majority to minority. Something so simple as one more night in, instead of outsourced.

I really love the protein and dairy bag from Friends and Farms. You can easily do four nights in, and still have three nights “out” with this affordable protein option. My $43 a week basket feeds the two of us, and provides us with the protein on our plates for at least four meals, sometimes five or six.

Take this week.

There are chicken legs, chorizo, breakfast links and rainbow trout in our basket. Along with the weekly eggs and, in our case we have turnips since we don’t do the milk thing.

I can make two meals from the chorizo. Two from the chicken. We use the breakfast links in weird ways, like in tomato sauce or in soups. Not a big fan of pork for breakfast but these tasty links can be cut up and used in so many savory dishes. Eggs. For Meatless Mondays, they make great omelets or frittatas.

But getting back to the original thought. You can make a very simple meal from the trout. One that would cost major bucks at a restaurant. Less than 30 minutes. How?

Plop those trout in a baking dish. Cover them in lemon infused olive oil, white wine and lemon pepper seasoning. Bake them at about 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I made two simple side dishes. Boiled baby potatoes. Microwave steamed Brussels sprouts.

Looks great, doesn’t it? I put the potatoes on while prepping the trout. I steamed the sprouts two minutes before the fish was done. Open a bottle of white wine and you have an excellent meal. With a little effort, and a little help from Friends and Farms.

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Posted in Food, Friends and Farms, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, hoco loco, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Home Delivery

Posted on January 13, 2016 by AnnieRie

As we muddle along in one of the first single digit wind chill days this winter, I am reminded at just how much I liked the home delivery options for food that are available here. We had our initiation into home delivery with Zahradka Farm. Back in 2011-2012 when I discovered them. At the time, they were somewhat unique in our area. For many reasons.

Like pick a size. Six, ten or fourteen item produce and fruit. Meat option. Egg option. Some pantry items you could order. I’ll never forget that first delivery a week before Christmas. With half a fresh turkey as the meat item.

Plus, the romanescu cauliflower, which became a special treat in our Christmas dinner.

Covered in grated cheese and pepper and spices. That was the beginning of what became a highlight in the dead of winter. Really fresh and varied vegetables through those dark days.

My last post was written about a new option around here. The Hungry Harvest, fruit and/or vegetable deliveries. They are what I believe to be the fourth option that allows you to stay home nice and warm, and receive fresh food delivered right to your door in Howard County.

Pair Hungry Harvest with FarmtoFork, a recently launched venture by Carroll Farm to Table and other local farms. You could order your vegetables and fruit from Hungry Harvest and your meat, eggs and dairy from FarmtoFork. We are lucky. Carroll is not that far from our house, and we have gotten their whole chickens to roast. They have a farm stand open all year. Times of operation are on their web site.

Last but certainly not least, the long standing home delivery service from South Mountain Creamery. They started with dairy products, and slowly expanded to include everything from meat to hummus to vegetable and fruit bags. We used to buy their products at the Glenwood farmer’s market. They stopped attending many of the local markets when they instituted year round deliveries to this area. You can choose weekly, biweekly or monthly recurring deliveries, or just order what you want when you want. Check out where they deliver.

I still head up to the Creamery to pick up items for parties, like the cheese choices. Besides, nothing tastes better than their fresh milk, unless maybe it’s their ice cream.

Now that I think about it, a recurring delivery from these local companies would be a perfect gift to give elderly family members. You could easily put together something that covers the coldest dreariest months. Not a bad thought to keep in mind for next year.

For us, if our favorite Amish CSA ever stops supplying us locally year round, we would be very interested in using any one of the four.

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Ugly Food

Posted on January 10, 2016 by AnnieRie

I’m going to step up to the plate, so to speak, and talk about the latest venture in our area. One that rescues “ugly food” and delivers it to those who want to support the reduction in food waste. A very noble cause. One near and dear to those of us who grow and eat ugly food on a regular basis.

my garden haul one day in 2014

Any gardener will tell you. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It still is good food.

Hungry Harvest, based out of the incubator for entrepreneurial efforts here in Howard County has gotten major press due to their appearance on national TV. Shark Tank. Where they received a substantial investment to assist them in growing their company.

I first heard about them from The Unmanly Chef, a fellow local blogger. I saw his pictures and thought, not bad. Doesn’t look all that ugly to me. The cost is a little high, but they deliver, and they donate to local food banks and food desert areas with every purchase you make.

I commend them for their commitment to providing good food to local charities and food banks. They aren’t the first around here to do that, but I love their level of commitment. We all need to stop judging food by appearance. Ugly food tastes just as good and sometimes better than that blemish free perfect produce sold in stores.

Hungry Harvest delivers produce bags. Organic produce bags. Fruit bags. To your door. Their prices for their regular bags seems reasonable. If you prefer organic, you can do better in price from our local CSAs. As for fruit, since I haven’t seen a sample, and I know what I pay for a fruit share from my CSA, I think they are a bit high here, as well. For example.

This share costs me $8.50. For the $25 or $35 a share from Hungry Harvest, I don’t think I would be getting 3-4 times the amount of fruit.

I know that delivery drives that price up a bit. I am OK with that. I hope as they mature, that they will use more local farms and less volume produce companies from Jessup. I hope they can work with local farms and orchards to get that less than picture perfect stuff that doesn’t get picked. Like at Larriland.

Lovely to eat. Not all that photogenic. Ugly tomatoes really are some of the best out there.

I also hope this helps us in our food bank gardening. In the past, we have been asked not to provide split or blemished vegetables. We have given tomatoes to the chickens at the Conservancy, the ones that had split after the rains. Our food bank turned them down. Maybe this partnership will eliminate the bias against blemished fruit and vegetables. I certainly hope so.

I wish Hungry Harvest the best of luck in growing their business. It’s a great concept, and easy for consumers to use. The weekly pricing, unlike the hefty upfront price tag of a CSA, is a great selling point. The more choices we have, the better the products.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, CSA, Farms, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses and tagged CSA, Food, gardening, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

A Very Merry

Posted on December 25, 2015 by AnnieRie

christmas morning 083

No, that isn’t our view this Christmas morning. I had to look back to 2012 to find a white Christmas around here. It was more like this out there.

foggy sunday morning 017

And, right now it is pouring rain. I should be thankful it isn’t snow, as all the moisture the last few days would have created large amounts of the white stuff.

It’s been a quiet day here. We do our big thing on Christmas Eve, and then we spend today recovering before another week of visits and celebrations. We still have my birthday, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to enjoy the excesses of the season.

I would be remiss to not mention again just how awesome our local shops and farms are. With great examples. Like Boarman’s market staying open to help someone who went to our big chain grocery only to find out they were out of parchment paper. Those last minute cookie baking sessions always seem to find us missing one thing we need. Boarman’s employees stayed after normal closing time to come to her rescue.

Breezy Willow opened on Christmas Eve with more cookie tins and plates, since they sold out of everything they had made for their normal Saturday farm stand times. I was there because I forgot a few little hostess gifts for my family.

Kendall’s came to the rescue again for us, as we had another run in with someone who doesn’t like mailboxes, and who smashed ours overnight before Christmas Eve. We do have a spare mailbox just for these occasions but I didn’t have numbers for it.

So, after all that last minute running around we spent a lovely afternoon and evening with my family and friends.

We are always asked, what are you getting for Christmas and usually our answers are a bit strange. This year, I got my dining room chairs redone, with The Cover Uph getting them finished in less than a week.

holiday prep 030

Decking out that dining room for dinners is one of my little pleasures. Replacing the 30 year old wool covers was a splurge and a gift to me.

Tonight we will have a simple crock pot dinner. The house smells like cinnamon from the red cabbage and apple dish that has been slow simmering for the last few hours. We are making a smoked kielbasa and opening a bottle of Virginia wine.

We’ll have some eggnog as dessert while watching Andy Griffith. I mean, seriously. Talk about wild and crazy holidays. With all sorts of partying. We gave that up long ago, and on a wet and dreary evening, we are having “A Very Merry” holiday just chilling out at home.

Hope you all are having a great time too, and are making your own memories.

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Posted in Adventures, Commentary, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Weather and tagged Food, holidays, local businesses, traditions, weather, white christmas. Bookmark the permalink.

Unintended Consequences

Posted on December 18, 2015 by AnnieRie

“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” – Yogi Berra

I think about this Yogi-ism often when confronted by what I consider to be strange logic. Like recently where a fellow CSA member mentioned that they might not sign up for CSA again, because they got too much food from it. To me, I understand that they may have signed up for a wrong size basket, but still, I find it interesting to hear. I am happy that we get more than we expected, because that means it was a good harvest year for the farmers.

I know of years where we didn’t get much. I know that often in the early spring months the baskets are a little light. Which brings up questions from the members that they aren’t getting their money’s worth.

Compare. The first spring share this year.

A half dozen potatoes. A few beets. A small bundle of asparagus.

By the end of the summer season.

Bags of peppers. Greens galore. Huge carrots. Brussels Sprouts. Not only more items, but more of each item as the year progressed.

It isn’t just the quantity of items in a CSA that prompts comments. Other observations over the last year or two perplex me as well. Comments about the early bird CSA at Breezy Willow. Because they bring in citrus from Florida. I think it’s a great thing to give us fresh foods in that final part of winter, when we are all ready for something fresh.

In March, when most of what you get is from cold storage, it was wonderful to see pink grapefruit and oranges from Florida. I think that’s a good thing. One to celebrate.

As for the other local or regional offerings available here in Howard County. We are so lucky that we have choices. Year round choices. Almost every CSA in the area has experienced growth. Sometimes those growing pains have consequences. Like when Friends and Farms has to change chicken suppliers to find one that could continue to cover the size of the program.

I really liked those Free Bird chickens. But Locust Point in Elkton is just as good.

Then there were the bread suppliers to Lancaster Farm Fresh. In fall of 2014, they used this small artisanal baker from Lancaster.

Loved those boules. The following year, they had to give it up, as the demand was too great for their capabilities. Now, we are lucky to have She Wolf Bakery in Brooklyn making the vegan loaves that can be used for all the members.

Change is inevitable. Success in our local vendors often requires adjustments. I for one am happy to see them succeed. I look forward to starting anew in January. With a winter CSA and my Friends and Farms protein and dairy bag. Just happy that we have such great choices so close to where we live.

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