Tag Archives: Locavore

Eating Locally – Post Op and Vegetarian

Posted on February 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

This may be one of my stranger Dark Days Meals. It is cooking now, under the direction of my husband who is cooking while I recover from my surgery. This week we were challenged to eat a vegetarian locally sourced meal. Ours will be a combination of items that I can swallow, and that he can prepare. There was a tiny bit of leftover tomato sauce made using Quaker Valley Orchards tomato sauce and local PA mushrooms. He is going to microwave it and serve it over Amish whole wheat pasta that he will make on the stove top.

Part of my meal will be heated applesauce from Quaker Valley. I have been eating some of it each night since coming home from the hospital.

Quaker Valley Orchards are 60 miles north of us. We get their fruits and veggies and sauces at the Silver Spring Year Round Farmer’s Market.

Descriptions from their website:
Applesauce – Our applesauce is homemade with our fresh apples peeled and cooked with our own cider and a touch of cinnamon, no sugar is ever added or needed! Our apple blends have our small fruit added that was frozen in season.

Tomato Sauce – All our tomato sauce sold at market is made on the farm in our kitchen with our own tomatoes. I make it in small batches and preserve it using a pressure canner. We enjoy it all winter long.

My husband will also be eating a large spinach salad that he will put together using CSA spinach, radishes and Firefly Farms Chevre, drizzled with Catoctin Mountain Orchards Blackberry Splash Vinaigrette.

He is slow cooking sweet potatoes with honey and butter and cinnamon in the oven, cooked at 170 degrees until they almost fall apart and caramelize. I can handle that as well. Swallowing is a wee bit difficult still, but I get better each day.

Obviously, I am not up and cooking, nor will I be taking pictures. I do have raw pics of the spinach and sweet potatoes and radishes from our Zahradka Farm delivery on the 17th of February. Still able to put together tasty meals using local items.

My husband will probably open a Linden claret and have a glass, while I get to enjoy Howard County well water and ice. 😉

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A Special Award for a Local VA Winery

Posted on February 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

We received an email yesterday that I just have to share. Glen Manor Vineyards in Front Royal, VA won the VA Governor’s Cup for their 2009 Hodder Hill Meritage. I have written about Glen Manor wines here on the blog as they are some of our favorites, including those made from Glen Manor’s grapes while Jeff White grew for Linden.

We have earlier vintages of Hodder Hill in our cellar, tucked away in boxes waiting for them to mature. This wine is made from four of the five traditional Bordeaux varietals. Only Malbec is missing from the blend.

We have been drinking these wines since 1998 when Jeff’s first single vineyard designation appeared on a Linden label. We recently had a 1999 with dinner. Just like all of Linden’s reds, it was still big, beautifully balanced and still a bit tannic.

A visit in early January to Glen Manor resulted in our stocking up on
their Sauvignon Blancs while assuming we would get some Hodder Hill in April at their barrel tasting. Now, it may be difficult as he indicated he will have to ration us to four bottles. It seems the phone is ringing off the hook since he won this award.

The Virginia Governor’s Cup was revamped this year, making it a very stiff competition, with two levels of judging. The twelve top wines, designated the Governor’s Case, will be featured in marketing and at official state events. Winning this first place finish is indeed an honor for Jeff. Over 400 wines were entered, many of them from very respectable long standing vineyards, and some from “upstarts”.

I mean, how often can you say you beat The Donald? Yes, Glen Manor beat out the Trump aka Kluge blanc de blanc sparkling wine. Here is the link to the press release.

Virginia is so far ahead of MD in promoting local wines. For years we have found the agriculture and forestry office in their government to aggressively promote their wines, all the while MD has been putting road blocks in front of potential MD winemakers.

Now there is some support for MD’s boutique wineries, with legislation passed favorable to the industry, but they will have a hard time competing with VA.

For those of us who love local wines, any progress is a good thing. With Black Ankle getting national press last year, and Glen Manor rising to the top of a booming industry in VA, this region may finally get the respect they deserve. The hills all along the Appalachian Mountains are a perfect place to grow Vinifera. No need to buy foreign wines. Uncork a bottle of something locally grown and produced.

And enjoy the view.

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Posted in Commentary, Locavore, Wine and tagged Linden Vineyards, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Winter CSA Week Nine

Posted on February 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

Halfway done. This will be a review of what I have gotten so far and what I think about doing a winter CSA. We don’t have pics of the basket since I was in the hospital and my husband picked up the stuff from the porch and put it away. I had made choices based on knowing what he could do after my coming home this week, and being limited in food choices.

We did get eggs and all Angus beef franks, so my husband has a few things he can make this week. Scrambled eggs one night maybe, and chili dogs another evening, as I have leftover venison chili in the freezer.

I also ordered and received:
large yellow onions
carrots
sweet potatoes
oranges from FL
frozen fajita peppers
frozen broccoli and cauliflower

He can stir fry the veggies for a meal later this week.

What I Like About a Winter CSA
This one delivers to your porch. You go on line and order six or ten items. They change weekly to some extent but not always. There are repeats obviously due to the limited amount of winter veggies available. They have flash frozen items that they offer regularly. The eggs are great; different colors and sizes. Big yellow yolks. The meat is really good, but I had hoped for more varieties. Still nine weeks to go. We shall see what we get. But, the half of a free range turkey at Christmas was awesome.

Difficulties of a Winter CSA
You have to like potatoes and carrots and winter greens. Weather can be a factor for delivery, but at least this year not much bad weather to affect deliveries. Not much variety in the veggies, and some of it looks pretty gnarly. It tastes great though. It just doesn’t always look wonderful. I know that is a problem with many. They want picture perfect veggies, and organic farm produce isn’t.

Will we do it again? Probably. We like the convenience of fresh food delivered to our home. The family farm in Essex is being run well by George and Libby. It is small and personal, so you know where your food comes from. Zahradka Farm is a great source for Howard Countians to find local foods delivered to them.

Where else would you get a “Christmas Tree” to serve at your Christmas dinner?

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Eating Locally – Bison and Polenta

Posted on February 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

Week 13, three months into the challenge to eat at least once a week with locally sourced items. All of the main ingredients for dinner came from less than 150 miles of our house. A few exceptions, spices and oils/vinegar, as noted when I started this personal challenge.

This week I challenged myself to cook items new to me for cooking, but not new from experience in restaurants. Bison, from Gunpowder Bison, and bought at the Silver Spring Year Round Farmer’s Market. Short Ribs, slow cooked in the oven. Served over soft creamy polenta and with honey glazed carrots.

The bison was first rubbed with “RubJoeMeat” coffee based dry rub bought last year at one of the local home shows. It is not local, obviously, but perfect for bison. Then, I placed it in an olive oil rubbed shallow pan, added red wine, balsamic vinegar, sliced white onion, and spread some McCutcheon’s tomato preserves over the top. Salt, pepper and cayenne. Baked at 225 degrees for three hours.

The polenta was made using Burnt Cabins roasted cornmeal. Nothing but water, cornmeal, salt, pepper and unsalted butter. Also, I steamed carrots then glazed them with honey.

Here are the supporting ingredients that went into the meal.

This was a really tasty meal. The polenta set up beautifully with an earthy quality: using roasted cornmeal created this heartier version of a soft polenta. The bison is lean, but using the wine and vinegar kept it from being dry or tough. The tomato preserves are awesome. Just tomatoes, sugar, and citric acid. Slightly sweet but still tart like tomatoes. This stuff is also great on toast for breakfast. The McCutcheon Family has been in the butters, preserves, jams and jelly business in Frederick for 74 years. We can find their jars of goodness all over the area.

As for the wine to stand up to this meal, we chose the 1998 Linden Hardscrabble. A fourteen year old Virginia red wine. Still with oodles of fruit and still tannic. Not brown around the edges. This wine is a killer wine and it proves that Jim Law has truly mastered the art of making big wines right here in our backyard. If you are a fan of Black Ankle and have tasted their big Crumbling Rock or Slate wines, they are babies compared to Linden. Sarah O’Brien is pushing Black Ankle in the direction that Jim Law took Linden. These are very concentrated wines. It will be interesting to see if Black Ankle can get to the level of Linden as their vines mature.

I have added Jim’s notes from his web page below the picture for those who want to know more about this lovely wine, that almost but not quite upstaged my bison and polenta.

Linden Vineyards Cellar Notes:

Aromas: Cocoa and dried herbs, especially rosemary.

Palate: Flavors of dark cherry, cloves and black pepper with firm, yet fine grained tannins.

Food Pairings: Red meats, rich cheeses, and dishes with olives or garlic.

Vineyard: Estate (100% Hardscrabble Vineyard), on Blue Ridge at 1,300 to 1,400 ft. with an eastern to southern slope. Deep, well-drained mineral soils give cherry character, deep color, and good structure. Vine ages from 8 to 14 years.

Vintage: 1998 was an unusually hot and dry year. A severe hail storm on June 15 reduced average yields to just 1.5 tons/acre (about 22 hectoliters per hectare). Harvest was September 22 through October 7.

Winemaking: A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Merlot. Grapes were destemmed and lightly crushed and fermented warm in small open bins. The cap was punched down by hand two times a day. The wine was pressed off just prior to dryness and put immediately in primarily one and two year old Virginia oak barrels. The wine was bottled after 21 months of oak ageing. 332 cases produced.

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Posted in Dark Days, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged Dark Days Challenge, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Winter CSA Week Eight

Posted on February 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

What was on the front porch today?

The cooler had a great surprise in it. A chicken. From the Zahradka farm. Free range. No hormones or antibiotics. It has been squeezed into the out of control freezer destined for the crockpot sometime next week.

This week I asked for and received:
1 large yellow onion
kale
spinach
sweet potatoes
leeks
radishes

Everything looks good, and has been cleaned for storage. Menu planning is in full swing.

hocoblogs@@@

Eating Locally for Valentine’s Day, in the Dark Days Challenge

Posted on February 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

Maybe I should title this post, why I can’t wait for the Columbia Wegman’s to open. I will be going out to dinner even less when specialty items are right down the road. (OK, 15 miles but who’s counting?)

Sunday night is the night we relax and have a great meal. And, since my husband teaches on Monday nights, plus we are not crazy enough to try and go out on Valentine’s Day, I decided to do our Valentine’s Dinner on Sunday. For me, as an avid cook of real food using local ingredients, I love to find great inspirations to build a meal around.

Our trip to Wegman’s Friday found us that inspiration, wild caught Chesapeake Bay rockfish. Our rockfish are really striped bass and are a best choice on the Monterey Aquarium Seafood list. It is advised though not to eat large amounts of fish that could contain mercury, so this is one of those “eat occasionally” seafood choices.

The morning after I brought it home, I put together a marinade and placed it all in a plastic bag for 24 hours. The marinade is not local. It is one of the few non-local items on the menu. I used St. Helena Olive Oil and some leftover white wine (Bota box pinot grigio) plus cilantro from Wegman’s, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.

This lovely Bibb lettuce, from Mock’s Greenhouse in Berkeley Springs WV and bought at Wegman’s as well, is the basis for the salad.

We usually find Mock’s greens at the Silver Spring Freshfarm Farmer’s Market, and we were happy to see more than one item of theirs located in the produce section at the Frederick Wegman’s.

The salad was made from this lettuce plus baby beets from our Zahradka Farm CSA, and Mountain Top Bleu Cheese from Firefly Farms. Both of these sources are on our local source page. I used Catoctin Mountain Orchard’s peach vinaigrette for the dressing. I stocked up at Catoctin in December since they take a very long break in the winter and don’t return until spring. I know not all the ingredients in their dressings are local, but the peaches are theirs.

I baked two small sweet potatoes from the CSA delivery, and served them with South Mountain Creamery butter. Sauteed a mess of collard greens in TLV Tree Farm bacon with onion and garlic from the CSA, and plated it all with the baked rockfish. The rockfish was baked in olive oil with a couple of pats of South Mountain butter placed on top at the end to melt.

Dinner was served with a Glen Manor 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Jeff White used to work for Jim Law at Linden, and his sauvignon blancs are lovely. They have that citrusy note. This wine was big enough to stand up to that cheese as well. We always eat our salads after our dinner, almost as a palate cleanser and the salad went well with the wine. You had to have the fish before the cheese kicked in. That mountain top cheese from Firefly is intense.

All in all, it was a really nice meal, for a fraction of the cost of going out. $20 for the wine, $20 for the fish, and everything else from the weekly CSA deliveries plus freezer and pantry. I like splurging on good ingredients and good wine and making a celebratory meal like this. Less stress. Easy to cook. Really it is easy to cook these things. They just take time. Sundays for us are the perfect night to enjoy the results of my hobby.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Dark Days Challenge, hobbies, Locavore, real food, sustainable seafood, wegman's, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Snow and Chili and Other Ramblings

Posted on February 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

It snowed last night. Not enough to make it difficult to get around, but enough to weigh down the branches and send the birds into overdrive. They descend on the feeders and bird bath in greater numbers when it snows. This is a light snow, which is already melting this afternoon. And, it didn’t even accumulate under the trees.

It is chili weather. I always make chili when it snows. Today was no exception so the crockpot is bubbling along with venison black bean chili in it. It is the last of my neighbor’s ground venison mix that he gave us last fall. I need to catch up with another friend and see if I can split some venison with them. They bow hunt to thin the herds on a few of the large farms around here. I will be serving the chili with one of our favorite local beers, Flying Dog. They are up in Frederick, MD. This chili was made by browning the venison with onion and green and red peppers, then dumping it all in the crockpot with seasonings, black beans, plum tomatoes, and a box of organic black bean soup. I will thicken it up with cornstarch before it is done.

I really need to get a chest freezer since I am now getting offers for sharing a side of beef, and a good friend of my husband is sending us lamb pictures, of all of the babies his ewes are having. He is priming us to make our first purchase this August.

Since their children are in 4H, they will have lamb and pigs at the Howard County Fair for auction this summer. This is the first year we will be bidding for at least lamb, and maybe split a pig with friends. We went last year and watched. Really interesting to see the care put in to raising these animals by the members of the 4H clubs in the county.

If we change how we buy our meats, making lamb, pork and beef as bulk purchases, it will be one more step I am making in the direction of moving from supermarket foods to locally sourced foods for more of what we eat. It still won’t keep me from craving and finding ethnically diverse and exotic foods to make, but it is changing me from using packaged foods, to making real food from scratch.

Seven years after moving, we are more in tune with what is available all around us. We hear the rooster from the coop down the road. He crows off and on all day long. On those quiet weekend mornings, I hear the cows across the hills from us.

Our other neighbor raised goats for a while. They used to get loose and run through our meadow. They have since moved but I still remember trying to chase them away from our garden.

As I sit here watching it flurry while the sun is out, I think how much I love being out here in an area that still has those little things that make me smile. Time to go check on the chili.

hocoblogs@@@

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Winter CSA Week Seven

Posted on February 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

We are back to a Friday delivery. I did have the cooler out, thankfully, for the eggs and the beef. This week I got the makings of soups, greens and stews, and some oranges from the Florida partner farms.

The carrots are huge, and like all winter carrots that we have found, they have a sweetness due to the starch to sugar conversion associated with cold weather growing. Something new I learned in my earliest forays into gardening in spring and fall.

This week’s celery is the largest we have received so far, and the best texture. These veggies are getting into their stride, so to speak. Destined for a soup next week with some beef from Boarman’s and the carrots and huge white onions from a Baugher’s visit a few weeks back.

Since the weather turned cold, and it snowed last night, more soups are coming on the menu. The cauliflower will go into soup, same with potatoes. I love soup and bread for dinner when it is cold.

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Eating Locally Hasn’t Been All That Difficult

Posted on February 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

Here we are, I believe on Week Eleven of the “Dark Days Challenge“, where over 100 of us from across the US, with one or two from Canada and the UK, are trying to see if we can make one meal a week using ingredients sourced from 150 miles or less from where we live. We have exceptions like spices, oils, chocolate and coffee. Plus, whatever we declared before we started. I will use locally produced items that may contain ingredients like flour or baking powder that aren’t local. Atwater’s bread is one of those sources.

So far, every week I have been able to source and use local items to make at least one meal. I finally reached the repetitive stage in this week, the eleventh one. I did an omelet for dinner, not much different than my frittata of a few weeks ago.

Finding a CSA that delivers all winter, and having numerous markets open year round, has made this fairly simple. Silver Spring, Tacoma Park and Dupont Circle all stay open year round. Zahradka farm provides home delivered veggies, fruit, meat, eggs, bread, and specially ordered items using an online weekly form. After picking which options you want for the 18 weeks, and pay in advance, we just sit back and take delivery weekly.

For this meal, the inspiration was a package of bacon from TLV Tree Farm in Glenelg, bought from Jamie this past year at the Fall Fest at the Howard County Conservancy in October and put away in my freezer with other goodies like a brisket and sausages. I defrosted it to use for Tuesday’s omelet and for Southern greens I will be making this weekend when my CSA arrives with collard greens. I admit, belonging to a CSA means you have to plan meals.

The baby Swiss cheese from a recent visit to South Mountain Creamery along with their milk and unsalted butter is going to be used for this 5 egg omelet. I am getting my biweekly delivery of eggs this coming weekend from Zahradka Farm CSA so I needed to use up some of the ones from last month. The spinach is from the CSA as well. The mushrooms I picked up at Boarman’s. They are labeled as from our favorite local source, Kennett Square PA. I get these mushrooms most of the spring and fall from the Sandy Spring CSA that delivers to Columbia and to the Conservancy.

Come this May will mark our second year with the cooperative of 70-80 organic farmers around Lancaster, including Mother Earth mushrooms. Until then, though, I am eating lots of greens, onions, potatoes, leeks, chard, cauliflower and broccoli. Eating seasonally is something many of us stopped doing when year round veggies from all over the world came into our chain supermarkets.

Taking this challenge has brought me back to simple cooking, fresh foods and decreased allergies. I am glad I did it.

On to the omelet, I cut up some bacon, browned it in the pan, added the veggies and mushrooms, then poured in the egg and milk mixture.

The finished product fell in pieces when I was trying to serve it so there are no dinner pictures.

We poured a glass of Linden Chardonnay from VA and buttered some some Atwater’s Bread, making this a completely local meal except for the salt and pepper.

A source that I have relied upon to tell me where to find local foods is the book Dishing Up Maryland by Lucie Snodgrass. I bought mine at Black Ankle vineyards last year, and I have seen it at Baugher’s Market. Besides the great recipes, there are pages of local resources in the back, a great place to find farms, artisans and markets in the state.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Community, CSA, Dark Days, Food, Locavore, Wine and tagged CSA, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, Food, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

It May Be Winter, But There’s Lots Going On!

Posted on February 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

I honestly am not sure how I found time to work. I have so many things happening this month, and places I want to go.

The Howard County Conservancy has two events this month, one this Saturday and one on the 26th. The Howard County Bloggers are having a blogtail hour in Columbia on the 13th. The 14th is Valentine’s Day and we are wandering down to Bistro Blanc for an after dinner drink, if we can get in.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is February 17-20.

I am volunteering to set up for an event at Sharp’s Farm for the Howard Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment.

Breaux Vineyards in VA has their annual Samedi Gras event on the 18th. And, we are meeting friends for Fireside Friday at Black Ankle one of these Fridays if we can fit it in.

First up for us, going to the Conservancy on the 11th to see how to worm compost. Squirmy Wormy Worms That Work: Kitchen Garbage to Top Soil – with Barb Schmeckpeper, a retired researcher in human and medical genetics, Howard County Master Gardener and environmental volunteer, who loves to talk to kids of all ages about the wonder of the natural world. Dr Barb Schmeckpeper has been doing this for many years – and she and her grandkids have a lot of fun with it! The Conservancy event page is here.

Then, Monday night I will be meeting some of the long time Howard County Bloggers in Columbia to get to know others who blog locally. It should be an interesting evening, as I have lived here 40 years almost, but spent most of my life commuting to DC.

Doing my thing counting the birds in our yard and meadow for the annual Backyard Bird Count next weekend. The habitat that I so carefully created and have nurtured has given me dozens of visits. My highest count one year was over a hundred birds, thanks to a flock of geese who landed in the adjoining fields behind our house and my neighbor. We routinely get more than twenty different species here. It’s easy to register and send in a count. Click the link above and get started.

On the 26th, we are going to see a truly amazing lady, Twig George, talk about Life with her mom, who wrote over 100 children’s books including the famous My Side of the Mountain. Twig herself is an author, writing children’s books as well. This family event at the Howard County Conservancy promises to be a great one. Learning more about nature and the environment are priorities for me in retirement. I spent too long as a bureaucrat pushing paper and now take every opportunity to get out and experience new things.

Who says retirement is boring? Certainly not us.

hocoblogs@@@

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