Tag Archives: Locavore

Fish On …

Posted on June 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

… the grill.

There is something about halibut. One of my favorite fish to grill. And we can’t go to Annapolis to visit family without stopping at Annapolis Seafood for something. It was a stop for shrimp but the halibut was calling my name.

The shrimp, also bought, was used today in a shrimp curry with Thai Spices Matsaman curry, fragrant with cumin and cardamom.

The halibut, grilled last night with some Friends and Farms vegetables.

Asparagus and red potatoes.

All seasoned with one of my pesto concoctions, defrosted from the freezer. This one was a mixed greens pesto, made last summer. Since it is almost garlic scape season, I need to finish off the last of the pesto containers from the basement freezer.

To complete that local flavor.

Maryland chardonnay, from Big Cork.

Here’s to many more locally inspired and small business supplied dinners. It’s grilling season, big time.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, grilling, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Hanging Out at the Swap Box

Posted on May 30, 2014 by AnnieRie

Or, how I’m spending my Thursday afternoons.

The swap box is where you exchange an unwanted item from your produce delivery in Community Supported Agriculture. I expected that there would be weeks where Lancaster Farm Fresh (in my half share) and Friends and Farms (in my individual basket) would overlap.

I pick up my Friends and Farms basket first. We know in advance what we are getting.

This week, the vegetables included spinach, red onion, red potatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb and collard greens.

Heading over to Columbia to get my LFFC box, I knew I was at least going to have some similar items. Our advance email told us the half share would be getting this.

Half shares get four to seven items. This week there were five. Kale, green leaf lettuce, chives, red scallions and collard greens. I swapped the chives. That would be an obvious swap for me since this is what I have in the community garden.

I think I could supply the 44 members of the Columbia pickup with their needs for chives, and then some. I usually swap herbs because I grow them.

I really wanted to find some lovely little Hakurei turnips. The full shares got them. But, no joy. I settled for another green leaf lettuce.

Besides the veggie share, I started my monthly cheese share this week. Every four weeks. Three varieties.

The chevre. Raw milk cheddar. Sheep’s milk soft cheese.

After seeing the incredible cheeses last year in other people’s boxes, I sprung for cheese this year. I don’t regret it at all.

I also get three pounds of free range chicken every week. This week: one pound of boneless skinless chicken breast, and two pounds of chicken wings. I wrote about the wings yesterday.

Changing topics here, and returning to Friends and Farms. The protein this week. Cod and hanger steak.

Just enough cod to make fish and chips one night. And, hanger steak. Hard to find as there is only one per cow. I never knew that before I started getting more unusual cuts of meat from Friends and Farms.

Bread and eggs this week in my individual rotation. And, as usual a few add ons.

Butter, and plain yogurt. The butter, to make chive butter to freeze in cubes to use next winter. The yogurt. To make tzatziki with one of those cucumbers, and some dill from my garden.

All in all, a good start to the summer season, for eating regionally and seasonally. And it is still cool enough to do something with those collard greens. I seem to have an excess of them this week. There could be worse things in life. An excess of collard greens just means bring out the bacon.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

It Takes a Community (garden)

Posted on May 27, 2014 by AnnieRie

I didn’t realize the social aspect of having a community garden plot. I really enjoy being able to stop and talk with fellow gardeners. Taking that break when you feel that weeding is way too hard in high temperatures.

There are always people up there. Some of them gardening. Some fulfilling their service hours.

Last year, the community gardeners donated over 1000 pounds of vegetables to the Howard County Food Bank. About 800 square feet of garden space in the plots is dedicated to the Food Bank Garden, and other gardeners donate their excess crops.

Every Tuesday morning is Food Bank harvest. This week they harvested greens, as it is still early in the growing season. I got there a little late, as I was caught up in family things. I missed them by a few minutes.

So, I puttered around. Fed my plants. Picked potato beetles off my cucumbers and zucchini.

Zucchini is one of those love-hate plants. Love them when they produce, and hate them when they over produce.

This year though, I have to admit, I inherited the Godzilla of chives.

Now, I love chive blossoms but these are out of control. I also have one amazing common sage plant.

Along with, believe it or not,

TOMATOES!

Early girl and supersweet 100s. Both have tomatoes on them.

Life is good. There are tomatoes in the future.

#hocofood

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Posted in Community, Food, Gardening, Hobbies and tagged community, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, howard county conservancy, Locavore, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Markets, Farmstands, CSAs and Cooperatives

Posted on May 26, 2014 by AnnieRie

Somewhere along the way during the past three years, I replaced the grocery store visits with fresh, regional, seasonal foods bought in four venues.

We started with vegetables and fruit.

Sunday mornings at Olney, or Saturdays at Glenwood.

Add to that our visits to the local farmstands and local farms, for dairy, meat, cheese, bread and other goodies. As well as the veggies and fruit.

You can go online and find year round open farm stands. Like England Acres, Breezy Willow or Copper Penny. I have been keeping track of the locations on my Farms page, and my local resource page.

There are at least six CSAs in this area. Some of them year round. Others, eight or nine months a year.

There are buying services. One, Friends and Farms uses regional suppliers. The other, South Mountain Creamery, delivers all sorts of items beyond milk, right to your door.

Now, I have also expanded my garden.

Add to that the pick your own sites, like Larriland, Butlers and Baughers.

It is pretty simple around here to replace grocery stores for most of what you eat.

Over these four years we have done just that. It took a while to find sources, but it is so satisfying to have really fresh foods. And we know the people that supply us with most of our food.

I just visited the new Ellicott City Farmers Market last Saturday. This is what I love most about farmers markets. The best things to buy and use.

I came home with two really great salsas. Some romaine. Radishes. Apples. A half dozen plants for my yard. I was tempted by the pizza, but had enough at home to pass it by this time.

I will be going back for more of that salsa.

Have you replaced the stores with your local businesses? The buy local challenge in July isn’t the only time to support your local farmers, vendors and small businesses.

#hocofood

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Posted in Commentary, Community, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged commentary, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Strawberry Season

Posted on May 24, 2014 by AnnieRie

Officially opened today at Gorman Farms. You do have to check to see when they are open. They had some hail damage.

As for us, we got strawberries Thursday from Miller Farms in our Friends and Farms basket. They are also open for those who live south of us.

These berries made it into three different meals already.

Strawberries with greens. Such a simple great salad. I used arugula, romaine and the pea shoots from our baskets. A very easy yogurt dressing. Scallions from my garden.

The second use.

Berry yogurt. Besides some of the strawberries, I used a few defrosted blueberries. The plain yogurt from Pequea Valley. A little agave for sweetness. That small care package in the fridge went with my husband for his 12 hour shift in an amateur radio contest. A few hardboiled eggs, and some penne pasta I made the other day.

The last of the strawberries from Thursday? I ate them. What can I say. I love fresh berries.

Besides Gorman, there are other pick your own farms around here. Depending on where you live, you can find one not far away.

Like Larriland, or Baughers in Westminster, or Butlers Orchards in Germantown. They are all saying early June opening.

Berries are a fruit that we enjoy picking. Our freezer was stocked with berry syrup cubes, and frozen berries.

We will as usual go out to Larriland and pick at least 20 pounds. You can’t beat the price.

#hocofood

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Posted in Day Trips, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Lunch From the Garden …

Posted on May 20, 2014 by AnnieRie

… and a few regional farms.

In the process of making lunch, the picture above shows some of the kale and chard from this morning’s thinning of the garden. Dressed with a simple yogurt dressing. Shake yogurt and lemon infused olive oil with some garlic powder, salt and pepper.

An apple from last week’s Friends and Farms basket, served with some of that provolone that we got, too.

Homemade peach yogurt.

To share, we used one cup of plain yogurt. One defrosted peach, from my stash in the freezer (courtesy of Larriland picking last August). A 1/2 tsp squirt of agave. That’s all. I control the sweetness when I start with plain yogurt.

This yogurt is available at Friends and Farms. At Breezy Willow Farm store. And at England Acres in Mt. Airy. Best yogurt we have ever found. No web site, as they are an Amish farm.

As for the rest of this bag of peaches. Destined to become peach pops. Simple to make. Blend the peaches with yogurt. To fill my popsicle molds I need about 32 ounces in the blender. If I get a little too much, the rest goes in a small plastic jar and becomes frozen yogurt. I am using whatever I have to give it the amount of sweetness I want. Currently I have agave, but I also use honey or maple syrup.

On a related note, I harvested a few more white onions today.

Including one very large one, that was too crowded in the middle of the rows.

And found the beginning of an onion scape on the largest one. Now, I need to head back up there and pinch off scapes to let the onions put more energy into the onions and not the shoots.

Back on the home front, though, my garlic out in the back yard hasn’t begun to produce scapes yet. They are getting really large finally, so I hope to get at least one dozen large heads of garlic in a few months.

So far, a good start to the harvest of spring vegetables. Now, if only the strawberry picking season would begin. Gorman Farm projects that they will open Saturday the 24th of May. Larriland is still posting “late” May. We are almost out of the last of the frozen berries, and can’t wait to get out in the fields and bring in this year’s berries. The freezer is getting empty now.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farms, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, hobbies, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Tale of Two Providers

Posted on May 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

Both of them awesome. The source now of most of what we eat. Well, with the exception of my garden, which will provide all kinds of goodness in the next four months.

Today, our Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA started up. For a 25 week summer season and a seven week fall extension. We dropped down to a half share because we still do Friends and Farms, and yes, we have a garden.

The reason why we love this CSA. The diversity. Have you ever heard of Egyptian walking onions? Well, until today, neither had we.

Our half share included:
Green Kale
One pound of spring mix
Arugula (which was in the full share, but I swapped for it)
French breakfast radishes
Red scallions
Asparagus

The full shares got the purple asparagus. They had ten items in their share. They got microgreens in theirs.

I also signed up for the chicken share. Three pounds a week of free range, antibiotic and hormone free chicken. This week:

Two chicken breasts and two legs.

Add to that bounty, the individual share from Friends and Farms. Between the two, we won’t be drowning in items and the portions are perfect for a couple.

The complete deliverable.

The sandwich steaks and provolone. Just what we need to make cheese steak sandwiches. The shrimp. Ten ounces in our individual basket. The small basket got twice that amount. Ten shrimp. Ten ounces. These are prime shrimp. There will be shrimp and grits, I think, to use up the last of the grits.

The add on I picked up this week. Plain yogurt. I have plans for the yogurt. The special. Leftover ewe cream cheese for a sale price. I could spread this cheese on cardboard and love it. It is particularly good on specialty breads. I am also thinking of crackers with cheese and the last of my homemade pineapple habanero jelly.

The rest of the items in that picture above. Spinach, green onions, beets, hydroponic tomatoes, butter lettuce, bread and a couple of apples.

I really don’t need to touch a market or grocery store with this kind of variety coming to our home weekly.

Tonight’s dinner celebrated those sources. I was home alone as my better half is out for the evening.

I covered a plate in spring mix. Sliced one of those hydroponic tomatoes, and added some basil from my garden. Shredded the end of the chicken from the last roaster (December delivery LFFC). Shaved a bit of Roots parmesan. And a scallion in the salad. I drizzled Newman’s Caesar dressing over it all. I was too lazy to make dressing with the yogurt today, but it will be made this weekend.

A glass of white wine, and what could be simpler for a meal?

Thanks to the regional deliverables of great ingredients, I had one of my fresh tasty meals.

#hocofood

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

Event Overload Again

Posted on May 14, 2014 by AnnieRie

The third weekend in May. Absolutely one of the most overbooked event weekends around here.

Wine in the Woods. Both days, Saturday and Sunday.

The Preakness. Saturday is the race in Baltimore, and the Balloon Festival at Turf Valley the 15th-17th if the weather permits it.

The Columbia Triathlon is Sunday morning. Our love/hate relationship with this event depends on whether we need to get anywhere by car that morning. We live right off the bike race route.

The EC Tasting Gallery Pop Up at Bistro Blanc is Sunday night.

There is a Family Open House at Belmont Saturday morning 10-12, with guided hikes and other goodies. The Howard County Conservancy is providing environmental educational programs at the Belmont site.

We are volunteering for Big Cork at Wine in the Woods.

Been fans of their wines since they opened the winery. Love the chardonnay, and really am looking forward to the release of their first red wines this fall. And, their new building out in Rohrersville.

As for that pop up dinner, we will be there. I can’t wait to see what the EC chefs and Chef Johnny at Bistro Blanc create in a culinary culture tour.

If I can drag myself out of bed Saturday morning to see the mass ascension at Oh-Dark=Thirty up at Turf Valley, I will be doing that too.

Belmont does interfere with Wine in the Woods. Darn. Van Wensil is leading two guided hikes which should be wonderful to do.

Sunday morning finds us cheering on the leaders in the triathlon as they pass the Royal Farms at the circle where Dayton and Glenelg meet. We like heading up there for coffee and bagels and to watch the world class athletes as they head out, and then back, from their loop out to Triadelphia.

And, can’t forget to sit out and watch the Preakness while sipping a Black Eyed Susan. Last year they changed the recipe for the cocktail. Sounds really interesting, if you have St. Germain around the house.

What are you doing this weekend? Are you guilty of event overload, too? I’ll need a week to recover from all this entertainment.

Oh, and the azaleas at Brighton Dam are still blooming. If the rain the next two days doesn’t mess them up.

#hocoblogs

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Food, Hobbies, Howard County, Real Food, Restaurants, Travel, Volunteering, Wine and tagged community, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Simply Spring: Onions

Posted on May 13, 2014 by AnnieRie

A staple in my house. Year round. Those different colors, textures, and tastes. Spring onions.

These onions are being harvested from my garden. To thin the white onions I planted a while back.

I planted a set of 80 white onions. I know I don’t want 80 onions in August, so thinning them out in the early weeks, harvesting those spring onions, will leave me with a manageable amount of onions to cure.

I use a very large amount of spring onions in my cooking. In my salads. My soups. Stir fries. Frittatas. I buy them when I don’t get them in CSA baskets.

This week, besides what I harvest, I am getting them from Friends and Farms, and in my first Lancaster Farm Fresh basket. This is one item that I know will get used quickly.

I just never thought until I started gardening, about all the items we get from the process of growing vegetables.

Like the onions, spring is the season for microgreens. Thinning out those greens.

Like my kale and chard. And the arugula out on my deck. Those little gems pack lots of flavor. They don’t go to waste.

Garlic scapes. Spring garlic. Pea shoots. I am now a firm believer in putting everything edible to a good use.

So, here’s to spring onions. I think I will let them shine this weekend. Grill them. Make them a star of a dish. Instead of a supporting player.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, gardening, grilling, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Scones, Scallions and Spice

Posted on May 10, 2014 by AnnieRie

Busy week. Making scones for the first time. Harvesting spring onions in the garden, aka scallions. And, cooking with Indian spices tonight.

Let’s start with the scones. Made for the Mother’s Day event that was canceled. At least I only made the test batch before we got word that predicted heavy rains for today would make it potentially abysmal in the gardens. Turns out the rain was about an hour later than predicted, but we all know about those weather people. Not to be trusted, or believed. (Just kidding, it is hard around here to figure out the weather patterns).

As for those scones.

Blueberries and peaches mixed with peach yogurt. Good peach yogurt from Pequea Valley.

One cup yogurt and one cup fruit. I used defrosted blueberries and peaches, from my Larriland picking last summer. These were added to the other ingredients at the end. I started out with 3 cups AP flour, 1/2 cup cane sugar, 2 tbsp. baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda. One stick of very cold unsalted butter added to these and mixed until the texture of a cornmeal. Dump in fruit and yogurt. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Next, let’s talk about the garden, and the newly harvested scallions.

I was thinning the white onions today. Took out three scallions that will grace the dinner table tomorrow. My first items this year.

Finally, the spice. The Indian inspired dinner.

Spiced chicken with yogurt sauce. I started out with a recipe but didn’t really follow it at all.

Except sort of, for the yogurt sauce. Easy to make. Big on taste. 6 ounces plain full fat yogurt. One lemon, juiced and zested. One tbsp. cilantro, chopped. Couple of shakes of ground ginger. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. Put on everything! This stuff is incredibly tasty.

I had leftover chicken breast, cut into cubes, or strips, or some of each. About 8-10 ounces of chicken. Made a dry rub. Tsp. of cumin. Tsp. of coriander. 1/2 tsp. of paprika. 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon. 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne. Two garlic cloves, minced. Lemon juice and zest. Salt and pepper. Mix with chicken, then cover in olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees (if it was already cooked chicken). With raw chicken, this would need 20 or so minutes at 400 degrees.

Serve with whatever bread you have to sop it up. I used the olive bread from The Breadery.

Serve it also with a wine that can stand up to the heat of the cayenne. I used a Traminette from Big Cork.

Let’s see what sort of goodies I can make tomorrow with those chicken thighs in last week’s basket.

#hocofood

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