Tag Archives: Locavore

One of Those Cooking Days & Getting Ready for the HoCo Markets to Open

Posted on April 24, 2012 by AnnieRie

Since I got the CSA delivery yesterday, I realized I needed to do something with all the goodies, from this week and last. The freezer is bare of stocks. I used the last one for soup a week ago using chicken thighs I bought at Roots. I also had eggs galore and beets from this week.

I dry roast my beets. Washed and placed on a bed of salt. Ninety minutes in the oven for beets this size, at 350 degrees.

They will be used for something like this, using the CSA oranges and spring onion.

The eggs will go into an egg salad for lunches. Doing these leaves me with 20 eggs until the farmer’s market opens.

As for making beef stock, I chopped up the ugliest carrots, used up the celery and last week’s leeks, and the end of last week’s spring onions to make the base.

Added my herbs and plopped in the frozen beef bones bought at Wagner’s in Mt. Airy a while back. Using these bones frees up quite a bit of space in the freezer. Put water in the crock pot and crank up to high for six hours. Then, I will be working at reducing and straining all the goodness out of this stock.

I will be the first to admit that having a CSA and getting fresh veggies means more work up front. Cleaning greens, prepping veggies, roasting, and cooking takes much longer than opening a box or container and nuking it. We used to do that years ago. I am glad I have the time to do this now. Much of it can be done on weekends, and we eat lots of defrosted soups and stews from crock pot cooking.

Once all this goodness is done, the dinners and lunches will show up in posts in the next week or so. Maybe another satisfying soup like this one from a few weeks back.

If you want good organic food at a fraction of the cost of pre-packaged, you should consider one of the CSAs that deliver to Howard County. There are a number of them out there, and I find that I spend less for good fresh organic foods by subscribing to a CSA year round. From May 2011 until May 2012, I only have one week without a CSA delivery (and that will be next week).

My summer CSA starts up on May 10th, just in time to use fresh veggies for lunches and dinners. I will be picking up in Columbia this year. Just off Cedar Lane. Thursday delivery so I can still hit the farmer’s markets on Friday and Saturday to get my meats, eggs, dairy and breads. Looks like a summer with minimal grocery store visits because Howard County has a great variety of sources for fresh foods. They are updating the web page daily and adding the vendors. Check it often to see if your market day is covered yet.

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

Green Eggs and Ham Anyone? CSA Week 17

Posted on April 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

Love the green eggs in the box.

We didn’t get ham, but we did get four Angus beef quarter pound burgers. Now, if it ever gets warm again, I will be grilling burgers and the asparagus from the box.

The leeks were humongous. One of them weighed 28 ounces, the two of them almost two and a half pounds.

Besides them, there were two beets. They weighed 26 ounces together.

I wanted citrus (oranges again) to make with the last of the fennel in the fridge, for a salad. And, I got some spring onions. Rounding it out were carrots. The half share, six items plus the last week of eggs. This weekend we will get our final delivery and then two weeks later we start our summer CSA, full share with Sandy Spring.

Zahradka was a good winter fit for us. A little too many potatoes, I think. In the future, I have to think about what I order when. And, I know the eggs need to get used faster. I am learning from this experience.

A nice range of veggies here, ready to be used. The beets, roasted to use with the last of the spinach and the greens from my garden.

Maybe beets and orange and spring onions with a vinaigrette. Asparagus grilled after being wrapped in Boarman’s bacon. All sorts of possibilities here.

Since it got cold again, the other half of the family wants soup, so the carrots and leeks will go into soup. I will have to stop at Roots and get celery and maybe turnips to use in a soup. I do have cranberry beans. I also have CSA sausage left in the freezer.

Looks like another week of avoiding those large chain grocery stores thanks to local farmers, Roots and Boarman’s. Who needs Giant Foods? Not me.

By the way, I stopped the other day on Howchow’s recommendation and scored a loaf of Monk Rye Bread for us, on a Friday, so they had enough left from the Thursday delivery. Soup with bread. YUM!

Soup from sausage, greens and beans

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, gardening, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

MD beef with MD wine

Posted on April 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

The grilling Saturday night special.

New York strip steaks from TLV Tree Farm. CSA peppers and onions. Wild asparagus from my yard. Pancetta bought at Roots. All getting happy on the grill at 500 degrees.

We got lucky and ate before it rained. This is a MD based dinner. Most of the food is from the Free State. A few exceptions, like the cheese from VA in the salad, and the blackberries from Costco. The blackberry vinaigrette is from Catoctin Mountain Orchards in Thurmont.

The wine: Slate, from Black Ankle Vineyards just across the county line above Mt. Airy.

The syrah adds an interesting note to what was otherwise mostly Bordeaux vinifera. Really nice, young, big wine from an up and coming Md winery.

The steaks were perfect. The peppers a good match. A low carb (relatively) meal with tons of flavor, locally sourced.

The asparagus from the yard. Awesome! I wrote about it here. And, no, it is no longer white once I exposed it to the sun. Still, a great dinner. Mostly local. Lots of it from less than 25 miles from the house.

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Posted in CSA, Food, Foraging, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Earth Day Here and There

Posted on April 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Tomorrow is Earth Day, but today the Conservancy was hosting dozens of volunteers and visitors for service projects, a plant sale by the Master Gardeners, a birding hike, and crafts projects for the little ones.

The wheel barrows were loaded and ready to go out for tree planting.

The parking lot was full of cars, on a lovely morning that cleared up to make it easy to work. Thankfully, it didn’t rain on the projects.

WR Grace brought out a group of volunteers to put in plants and mulch the entrance area, right on Old Frederick Rd. Everybody was hard at work. The Conservancy greatly appreciates their dedicated volunteers that come out to help.

I bought a few more tomato plants from the Master Gardeners. I couldn’t resist. I got two red fig and two pineapple plants. Yes, these are tomatoes. Interesting rare varieties. The red fig dates back to the 1700s, and is a pear shaped tomato. The pineapple tomato is one of my favorites. In talking to the gardeners, they said many of their heirloom seeds come from Baker Creek, which is the source for this picture.

After I left there, I ran over to TLV Tree Farms to pick up herbs for my garden. At Greenfest last week, I told them I would come out during their Saturday hours (10am – 2PM) and pick up what I needed to fill in my herb garden with new annuals and a few perennials that are getting ragged.

While there, I did pick up a couple of New York Strip Steaks to grill if the weather holds. MD steaks marinating in MD wine. What could be better?

I put the three varieties of thyme in the ground this afternoon, and left the lavender sitting in the pots until I position the basil, tarragon and marjoram that isn’t hearty enough to plant yet.

English, creeping and silver queen thyme

Lavender waiting to be planted, keeping the mint company

I also wandered around to document the blooming of my bank of azaleas along the north side of the house. They are almost the last to bloom. One more area in the northeast corner still isn’t ready. These that bloomed today are brilliant red, and some of my favorites.

What a beautiful spring day in the county. One more pic of the azaleas, because they are so brilliant. Go out and plant something!

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Posted in Community, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, People, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, earth day, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, nature, photography, spring flowers, tomatoes, volunteering, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

Heirloom tomatoes.

They make me do my happy dance. I rode out to Sharp’s Farm this morning, the first morning the greenhouses are open. You have to go early to get some of the most exotic heirlooms. They are sold to many places like Brookside Gardens, the Master Gardeners and the Conservancy community gardeners, just to name a few. If you go during the first few days, you can score things like:

Chocolate Stripes
Legend
Paul Robeson

There are others. I forget how many. I believe they planted 35 varieties of heirloom tomatoes from seeds. They also have standard tomato plants, like Early Girl and Supersweet 100s.

I love the farm. I could wander around for hours.

The greenhouses are open Tuesday through Sunday. Check the hours on the web site. As I was leaving, school buses were rolling in for a field trip.

I came home and messed around a little with the heirlooms and put a few plugs of the herbs in a planter. I will be getting more once I check with my neighbor who wants what.

These plugs are Legend, Hillbilly and Chocolate Stripes, all will be put in the ground in two weeks. Right now, I will keep them out in the day and protect them in storms and wind.

It truly is spring when I get my tomato fix. Just brushing the leaves and getting the scent of tomato plants makes the anticipation of the coming harvest, two months away, even more exciting. Just think. All this waxing poetic about little green things that go in the ground.

When I came home, I harvested three wild asparagus stalks. Two more tomorrow and there will be asparagus on the menu tomorrow night.

If you want affordable plants, and can grow from plugs, you can’t beat going to Sharp’s. Or, get the pots. I got eight basil plants to go in the herb garden. All sorts of varieties. Great place to visit. And, don’t trust the sign. They hadn’t gotten up to change it at 10 am, when they opened.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, tomatoes, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Grillin and Chillin in Locavore Style

Posted on April 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was lovely. One of those days you are glad you are retired. Cleaned up the grill. Did some yard work. And grilled up a locavore meal.

This is surf and turf Boarman’s style.

We bought two crabcakes Sunday. And four mushrooms. Split the crabcakes into the mushrooms with some Trader Joe’s mustard underneath and Old Bay sprinkled on top. Brushed with Trickling Springs butter. Grilled up off the flame.

The sausages are Boarman’s sweet Italian. Not the spicy ones.

As for the rest of the meal, it was mostly CSA foods. Potatoes, onions and the defrosted peppers, all came from Zahradka. The only non-local items here were the tomatoes, but they also were bought at Boarman’s. The bread. Sourdough from Canela, bought at Boarman’s.

I did not set foot in a grocery store to buy these foods. You can have lovely meals from small stores using local sources.

The wine: the Linden 2011 Rose made from the estate merlot grapes. 2011 was the difficult year, due to the hurricane and all the rain. Lots of good grapes that didn’t get to be great wines are being used to make light refreshing wines. This wine was a perfect match to compliment crab and pork sausage.

Doesn’t get much better than this.

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Posted in CSA, Food, GGSAC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, grilling, hoco loco, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Terroir

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

It really makes a difference. The earth. The soil. Are you partial to fruits and vegetables grown in your area?

Are you, like me, someone who craves Eastern Shore tomatoes, ‘lopes and watermelons, because they taste the way they do?

And, even though hydroponically grown tomatoes have flavor, it doesn’t pick up terroir, because there is no soil.

It is interesting that Glen Manor changed their web site this week. They have always featured the term “a sense of place”, which is what terroir roughly translates to mean. Their new web site has more detail on what that means to them.

Last Thursday night, I blogged about my pizza with a 2002 Linden Cabernet Franc. Full of fruit, hint of smoke.

Friday we drove to Front Royal to pick up our 2009 Hodder Hill allocation from Glen Manor. we had to get it quickly as it had just won the VA Governor’s Cup and was already in short supply.

We tasted the 2010 Cabernet Franc, and surprise, the same hint of smoke. Why? Because in 2002 the Linden Cabernet Franc consisted largely of Glen Manor’s grapes.

Terroir!

Jeff worked at Linden before going out on his own. He learned from one of the best in VA. His wines reflect that same commitment to using what nature gives you.

You can’t go wrong with either one of these vineyards. If you talk to either one of them, they will tell you first and foremost they are farmers. They grow grapes. They make amazing wines from those grapes.

I may sit down with friends this weekend if it stays warm and decide whose dry Rose is my favorite for a summer time wine. They both make great reds, but their style of Rose isn’t bad either.

If you want to visit two beautiful wineries and taste some of the best of VA, you can’t go wrong at either site. I love the fact, no limos, no large groups, no party people. Just simple folk who love wine.

Glen Manor

Linden Vineyards

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Posted in Day Trips, Locavore, Wine and tagged day trips, foodie, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Stopping at Frank’s to Grab Strawberries

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

I couldn’t resist, nor could I wait until next month. I just wanted some strawberries.

I have spinach from the CSA, and chevre from a visit to VA. I have balsamic too. Can’t figure if I should make strawberries with balsamic and pepper, or add them to a salad, or both.

The strawberries are from Carolina. Still not ready here. Two or more weeks until Larriland.

If you have never been to Frank’s produce, they are located at the end of Lark Brown, past Costco and Trader Joe’s entrance. Keep going and turn right at the stop sign. Go about 150 yards. The greenhouses are full of plants right now and the place is hopping.

We went to Costco to fill up on staple stuff like printer cartridges, TP and allergy tablets. I did pick up my favorite organic broth that I use in so many ways. I love when they have it there.

As for the salsa in the picture above, I will be taking it to a meeting in a few nights. Needed something good to take. got some blue corn chips, and I am good to go.

I am also now a fan of using McCutcheon’s tomato preserves on toast as breakfast. Ran out a while back, and remembered that Frank’s sells McCutcheon’s products.

All in all, a good day to be out and about. As for eating locally, lunch today was leftovers and a salad from the CSA. I wasn’t going to blog about it, but my husband said, take a picture of my salad. It looks like something you would get at a restaurant.

CSA beef sausages with onions and peppers. CSA spinach, radishes and orange. Tomatoes from Boarman’s (not local). Firefly Farms chevre. Still avoiding those grocery stores and supporting Howard County businesses as much as I can.

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Posted in CSA, GGSAC, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

It’s Sunday Morning and Everybody’s Dining Locally

Posted on April 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

The bunnies are.

So are the finches.

So is my red bellied, but he decided to run up the tree when he saw the glint of the camera. Can you find him up there?

He also decided a little later to sit higher and make enough noise to let me know I was interrupting his meal. Once I went inside he came back down to his nuts and seeds. The little woodpeckers won’t run when I come out, but the red bellied is still skittish enough that he hides in the trees.

As for us, a true local delight for a leisurely breakfast.

My CSA eggs, sunny side up, from Zahradka Farm, made with Trickling Springs butter, and served with buttered Atwater’s olive bread toasted. You can get Trickling Springs butter all over the place now, the organic markets as well as at Atwater’s in Catonsville. I thought I still had sourdough bread in the freezer but only olive bread left. Time for a trip to Catonsville to get a few more loaves to freeze. They work great that way. Get them sliced and put them away wrapped in foil. Pop in the toaster and enjoy.

I have perfected my sunny side up skills by using the trick of putting a lid above them to just set the yolks without them getting hard.

With yolks this orange and the eggs so fresh, it would be a crime to overcook them. Although I did break one putting it in the pan, and my husband graciously chose that one. He likes his over easy anyway.

Gradually working our way through the eggs in the fridge. Time to make some egg salad for sandwiches this week, or a frittata with that spinach from the CSA last Friday. Two more weeks of home delivery.

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Posted in Birds, CSA, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature and tagged birds, cooking, CSA, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, nature. Bookmark the permalink.

An Exhausting But Fun Day at Greenfest

Posted on April 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Every year, it seems to get bigger and better. Greenfest at HCC was the place to have fun for young and old alike, with indoor and outdoor activities, booths, classes and with live animals in one of the areas. The Conservancy was out in the main corridor this year, since we left the owl home. Crowds and other animals aren’t Ranger’s favorites.

But, we did bring some interesting things for the kids to touch, like a coyote pelt and a black snake’s discarded skin.

The children were fascinated with the snake skin and loved to touch the softness of the coyote pelt. It did seem to escape the notice of the County Executive who we saw stopping at booth after booth and conversing with the exhibitors.

Just kidding. It was nice to meet Ken Ulman, and we are glad that the county sponsors events like this one. After my volunteering time at the Conservancy booth, we spent time wandering, learning and just having fun, so I couldn’t believe how quickly the day went.

We purchased some cheese from Bowling Green Farms, and brisket from TLV Tree Farms. Thanks to both Howard County Farms for providing the mini farmer’s market. Their web sites are linked on my local resources page.

I will be stopping out at TLV since they are open on Saturdays to add some new herbs to my garden. They had a wonderful array of plants and herbs there today. They will be at the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday markets, I believe.

The list on the farmer’s market web site of vendors is slated to come out this week. Kathy Zimmerman of the HCEDA office confirmed that. The Howard County Farmer’s Markets open three weeks from Wednesday, the first market at the new Miller Library in Ellicott City. I think it is great we have so many young farmers here. Supporting them and helping them succeed makes the county a better place.

My husband did the circuit of the vendors, took a few classes and thankfully restrained himself from bringing home dozens of samples and giveaways. After all, we are retired and trying to rightsize. I do like the notepad with a cover from recycled cardboard.

We were very proud to see that HoLLIE and Ann Strozyk received Robinson Foundation awards. I worked with Ann on curriculum ideas as part of my HoLLIE internship last year.

What I love most about Robinson and the Conservancy? Anne Robinson donated to start the Foundation, and the Nature Center is a tribute to a Howard County woman who believed in giving something that our children and their children will enjoy. Just like Ruth and Frances Brown donated their land to the Conservancy to connect people with nature. The children seemed to have fun today, too.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love living here. I think Money Magazine had it close but not quite correct. Maybe to them we were number two in the best places to live, but to me, the whole county is special and we are the best place to live. Call me Pollyanna, but being here for 38 years is a testament to how much this county means to me.

Not that I didn’t come home today and collapse for a nap, after all day out and running around. At least, being retired, I can excuse the two hour nap before dinner.

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