Tag Archives: tomatoes

Come Meet Your Local Farmers

Posted on January 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

This Sunday the 20th from 2-4:30 the Howard County Conservancy is presenting a program featuring our local farmers. Come and meet the faces behind the farms. Farms that participate in our markets, that have seed sales, pumpkin patches, mazes, fall festivals, farmstands and CSAs.

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Particularly the CSAs. Many of the farms will be explaining how their CSAs work. Here is a shot of last year’s April delivery from Zahradka.

Typical April CSA items

Typical April CSA items

If you are interested in learning more, come join the discussions. Besides having information available a few of the farms have items for sale. Like cheese. Honey. Eggs. You can also find out how and where to get local beef, lamb and pork from our farmers.

Farms include: Clarks, Sharp, Breezy Willow, Love Dove, Bowling Green, Zahradka, and Gorman. Maybe you have visited their stands. Maybe bought their items at the markets in Howard County.

Love Dove, at market, also has CSA

Love Dove, at market, also has CSA

Do you know where they are located? How long the land has been farmed? What they now farm and any changes over the years?

There will be an informal panel discussion at 3 pm, with the participants. Ask what they grow, what they love most about farming, what are they planning in their futures?

Check out all the great products brought to us from our local farms. How about seedlings for your herb or vegetable garden?

heirloom tomato seedlings and plugs - Sharp's farm

heirloom tomato seedlings and plugs – Sharp’s farm

Did you know you can order meat to pick up at Clark’s on Saturdays? Or, stop out at Breezy Willow for eggs, meat, dairy and winter veggies? Find out what is available year round. It may be winter but there is quite a bit available to support our local farmers.

Breezy Willow in January

Breezy Willow in January

Join us Sunday!

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Snow Days

Posted on December 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

I don’t mind snow days like these. We needed the rain, and we got almost an inch so far today. It is snow mixed with sleet and rain, so it will be gone soon. The birds are frantically looking for food. It’s junco and blue jay reunion out there. Although the blue jays flew away once the camera came out.

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Today was one of those stay inside and do projects kind of days. I am cleaning out the bedside nightstand drawers and doing some shredding. I did put tuna and tomatoes, with a base of canellini beans, in the oven on slow cook. A good hearty cold weather dish. Using some of my oven dried tomatoes that I froze. Plus, that end of the Costco tuna loin. It looks so dark and meaty, you wouldn’t think it was a fish dish.

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We are keeping a close eye on the trees to make sure they don’t get weighed down with wet snow. We lost too many branches during those storms a few years back. We were supposed to have the final high tree pruning today, but the weather forced a cancellation. Without leaves, though, the deciduous trees will do OK, it’s the coniferous trees that worry me. We have a wind advisory for tomorrow with a potential for downed power lines again. The big question always is, “Should we fill the tubs with water in case we lose power and can’t flush toilets?” With all the weakened trees after the hurricane, power losses are still possible.

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I do have to admit that it is beautiful out there. All Christmasy with the twinkling lights. Glad we don’t commute anymore, but can enjoy the view.

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Frozen Foods

Posted on December 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

My way. Cooked from scratch out of the freezer. I made homemade bolognese sauce today, to be served with egg noodles for dinner tonight. The sauce makes the house smell wonderful, and most of the ingredients came out of the freezer this morning.

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Breezy Willow sausage. I used half of it yesterday in dinner, a layered egg based dish. Today I put the other half in a pot with an onion, garlic, and I grated some frozen carrot over it for natural sweetness. Look at how little fat there is in the bottom of the pan. Amazing when you buy fresh meat from the farmers. Not a lot of filler and grease.

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The carrot addition was something I learned this summer. Peel, blanch and freeze small carrots. Take one or two out of the freezer and grate them right into your sauce. When they are frozen they grate up nicely and it takes less time than dicing carrots. I also added my heirloom Amish paste tomatoes right out of the freezer.

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They provide the cooking liquid for the sauce. I added a little spice, and two tablespoons of tomato paste. Let it simmer for about 45 minutes, and perfume the house with the smell of oregano, garlic and onion.

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Tonight it will be simple to heat it up, boil some of the egg noodles I got out at England Acres, grate some Parmesan on top and toast a few pieces of bread. An arugula salad on the side. Another locavore meal, right out of my freezer. Loving all the tomatoes that I put away in the summer.

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Back in August. Blanched, peeled, seeds removed and packed away for days like today.

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Transformation

Posted on December 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

In one year. From a freezer full of grocery store items, and a pantry full of processed foods. It was one of my biggest resolutions last year. Start cooking real food. Use up the CSA. Support our local farmers and markets and small businesses as much as possible.

Now, the pantry has more staples and less packaged items. Most of it organic. The two freezers are full, with very few packaged items in them. Today I finally reached the point where the only meat in the freezer is locally sourced. All of it. From the local farms, and from grass fed and/or free range animals. It may cost a bit more, but we have learned to eat smaller portions and make the veggies on the plate more than half the plate.

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Dinners like my husband’s birthday meal featured small filets, lots of green and red veggies, and it was truly filling and good for us, as well. Portioning out the meat and fish is the way I do it now.

Yesterday I added this to the freezer. Took us a while to inventory and it definitely filled the freezer in the kitchen.

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Thirty seven pounds of venison. From the farm across the road. Our neighbor hunts over there, getting meat for us. We have the large garden, and supply them with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. from our garden in the summer. He bow hunts to keep the doe population under control around here, for us and the other neighbors who farm and garden.

Today the crock pot has a lovely venison chili bubbling away in it. The only non local items in the pot are the organic black beans, the olive oil, spices and herbs. The tomatoes came from my garden. The onions, sweet peppers and jalapeno, all from the CSA.

venison black bean chili

venison black bean chili

I have two weeks left in the CSA, then a break for two and a half months. I will be using my foods from the freezer and hitting the Saturday and Sunday markets at the farms, and in Olney. I still need to get seafood and occasionally I will buy from Boarmans for cuts that I can’t get from the farmers, but I finally have decided to minimize my exposure to meats from animals given hormones and/or antibiotics.

Local farms that will have markets this winter.

Breezy Willow on Saturdays
TLV Tree Farm on Saturdays
Clarks Farm on Saturdays
England Acres on Saturday and Sunday

Olney will have an indoor market at the Sandy Spring Museum, beginning in January. Add them to the current year round markets, in Silver Spring, Tacoma Park and Dupont Circle. All of those are a drive from here, but an occasional visit to DC for Sunday brunch and some goodies is worth it.

I am keeping my local resources page up to date, as much as I can. We are so lucky here in Howard County to have fresh food, eggs, dairy, cheese, ice cream, meats, honey, and lots of local canned and frozen specialties, made by local farmers and local companies. Just because the markets have ended in Howard County doesn’t mean we can’t find sources for the winter.

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A Windowsill Full of Sunshine

Posted on November 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

It may be cold and blustery out, but it is so satisfying to pull out the last of the bag ripened tomatoes from the laundry room, where they have been ripening for a month, and line them up on the windowsill. Evoking memories of summer.

I had picked the last of the green tomatoes on October 20th, and put them away to ripen. The little ones ripened first and were used, but these were the last to turn. They sat in a dark cool corner of the laundry room for a month. Closed in a paper bag.

They mostly survived. I had to toss a few of them. They obviously don’t have that fresh from the vine taste, but are much nicer than store bought tomatoes. I will make a pasta dish with these, sauteed and adding some of my pesto I will pull out of the freezer. Back from when I was overloaded with basil and put up containers in the freezer.

Here’s to memories of summer and my garden.

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The Fall CSA, Three Weeks In

Posted on November 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

I can tell Thanksgiving is here. The veggies attest to it.

Sandy Spring Fall CSA Week 3 of 2012

I keep playing “I’m celery the eighth, I am, celery the eighth I am, I am” in my head. These two heads of organic celery were just massive. More than enough for stuffing, or dressing (your preference), and for under the turkey and to use when making turkey noodle soup with the leftovers. Of course, we are also getting veggies next Tuesday (early because the holiday is Thursday), so we may be really up to our ears in celery.

Here’s the list, but modified to show we got extras of a few things, in order to make up for the lost week. Next to each is the cost from my visit today to Harris Teeter. Organic, when possible. Otherwise, regular. The popcorn a guess, based on cost of microwave popcorn in the store. I round up the penny.

1 Bunch French Heirloom Carrots $3
1 Head Broccoli $3.50
1 Butternut Squash (2 1/2 lb) total comes to $3.25
1 Bag Hakurei Turnips (2 1/2 lb) $14.95 (see below)
2 Bunches of Celery $8 (yes, organic were $3.49. EACH)
2 large Yellow Onions (1 1/2 lb) $2.70 total
1 Bunch Lacinato Kale $3
1 Head Napa Cabbage (3 lb) $5.10 total
1 Bunch Yellow Popcorn use $4 to compare to microwave
2 Rutabaga (2 1/2 lb) $3.25 total

The added up cost for this week is $49.65. Cost for a share $31.25 a week. Add to last week where it was $42.22 (remember we lost a week due to Sandy), total is now $91.87. I think. I may need to check my math but it looks like after week 3 we are almost even with what we pay. Down only $2. If they keep adding amounts like they did this week, twice the celery as originally stated. A very large amount of turnips. We should be way ahead by Christmas, as is usually the case with this CSA.

As for the turnips, Hakurei are a delicacy. A small bunch of them (less than 8 ounces in weight) were $2.99 at Harris Teeter today. We got two and a half pounds of them. I really love these turnips. They are sweet. They can be eaten raw or cooked. I am thinking of taking them to my brother’s for Thanksgiving, baked in a light butter sauce with Brussels Sprouts. I need to find Brussels sprouts at one of the last markets this weekend.

Hakurei turnips

As for that popcorn, we found a recipe that says, just put it in a paper bag in the microwave. We need to try this.

Last night was “Use up the CSA” dinner. My roasted root veggies before baking. I added some of my bag ripened heirloom tomatoes to the pan, too.

veggies before roasting

After they finished, I boiled some pasta, added a few cubes of my garlic scape pesto I took out of the freezer and had a primavera of sorts that was so good. We did eat the last grillers from TLV on the side.

Not bad for using up leftover veggies, roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper.

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Making Meals Mine

Posted on November 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

Putting my signature on them. Using items I grew or made. Tonight’s dinner reflected that. All three elements included foods from my garden or my freezer.

We wedged dinner between football games and finishing a radio contest, so it was mostly leftovers, but not without my input. The joy of having a garden and of preserving foods lets me add my signature by placing at least one ingredient in each dish from my resources.

The salad. The microgreens from today’s visit to Olney. Topped with my last pineapple tomato from the garden.

I opened up the brown bag in the laundry room today and found a ripe tomato inside. Believe it or not, that bag ripened heirloom had more taste than many store bought tomatoes could ever have. The rest of the tomatoes went back into the bag. If they get close to ripe, there will be a green tomato pasta on the menu soon. I have oodles of pesto.

Speaking of pesto, it made its way onto the top of the focaccia, to add some flavor and even more depth to it. The pesto was made with African blue basil from my garden.

Then, the soup. Potato leek made the other day. Veggie broth as a base. The broth made with CSA veggies and put away in the freezer. The fresh garden touch. Chives from my window boxes that sit on my deck railing. With the freeze warning tonight, they may bite the dust, but they did brighten up the soup.

Sometimes it is the little things that make a meal. For me, it is the satisfaction of including foods from my garden into those basic leftover meals. So worth it.

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On a Mission for MicroGreens …

Posted on November 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

… and a turkey order for Thansgiving.

I wanted microgreens. Was sorry that Breezy Willow didn’t make yesterday’s Glenwood Market, as I know they generally have them. It is one of the items I buy from them often. That meant, if I wanted organic, I could hit Roots or go to Olney. Our House Farm sells organic veggies at the Olney market. Today was the last day of the Sunday morning farmer’s market and artisan fair. I got my greens fix and I’m happy.

With the rest of these goodies I will be making salad with dinner tonight. Check out my last heirloom home grown pineapple tomato, bag ripened in the laundry room. It, along with Our House Farm scallions, a hothouse cucumber from another Olney market stall, some sliced mushrooms and the last of the CSA radishes will be a big part of tonight’s dinner.

Dinner tonight will be salad, focaccia and the end of my potato leek soup that I made last week. The mushrooms in the picture were picked up at Boarman’s, where I stopped off to put in my Maple Lawn Farm turkey order. We always order our turkey at Boarman’s and pick it up the day before Thanksgiving. That way we also put in an order for sausage to make dressing, and this year I got some shrimp. You can put together an order and just arrive there and pay. We tried the craziness of getting onto Maple Lawn Farm, and this is way easier.

If you live anywhere in Howard County and want fresh turkey that can’t be beat, Maple Lawn is the place to get it. My turkey before and after, from last year.

my 2011 whole fresh turkey

oven roasted fresh turkey

Now, all I need to do is get going on making my sauerkraut. Hope we get cabbage from the CSA soon. My kraut usually needs at least a week to be the way I like it.

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Eating Locally: The Wrap Up for Summer

Posted on November 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

The Summer SOLE Food Challenge, SSFC, is over. I made it through remembering to post almost every week. Eating locally is so easy around here when the markets are still hopping.

Today is the East Columbia Market. Miller Library finished yesterday. The Glenwood and Oakland Mills markets will continue until the weekend before Thanksgiving, and East Columbia ends on the 15th of November. Stocking up on meats from the markets will allow me to continue to put something made in Howard County on my table throughout the winter.

We haven’t heard yet what would be included in the delivery and whether our CSA delivery will take place today. After I finish with the first graders at the Conservancy, I am either picking up a fall delivery, or heading to East Columbia to get a few things. I let the refrigerator get pretty empty before the storm.

I did remember to take some tomatoes and pesto out of the freezer yesterday so tonight there will be pizza with TLV bacon, tomatoes and pesto from my garden, and Bowling Green mozzarella. Mostly local, except for the crust.

The pesto and oven roasted tomatoes are defrosting today. The bacon is out, and I will fry up the entire package, crumble it and use it in salads, omelets and soups. I need eggs, as I hit zero yesterday. Sounds like a trip to TLV Saturday is in store.

You can eat healthy, organic, IPM, non GMO foods around here fairly easily. The ten of us from our challenge have all signed on to continue looking for sources and posting about what we do in the winter. Details are being worked out by us now. I will modify my Food Challenges page to reflect it.

I made a really good crock pot potato leek soup last night, letting the soup cook while we cleaned up the house, and put things back where they belonged. No pictures, because besides being exhausted, two of the potatoes were purple so the soup looked a little weird.

Yes, you can mix all sorts of potatoes into that soup. One of them was even a white sweet potato. I put half the soup in the blender just before serving so we had chunky creamy soup. Four leeks, all the potatoes, an onion, a little celery from the fridge, my homemade veggie broth as a starter, and towards the end I added a cup of almond milk to make it creamy but keep it lactose free. Everything was cut into cubes or small pieces and dumped in the crock pot with a little salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence.

OFf to chase first graders around for a few hours. We are teaching rocks, fossils and extinct animals. Should be a fun morning. Here’s hoping the sun comes out.

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Eating the Rainbow

Posted on October 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Eating by Color. An interesting book we discovered at Costco years ago. I use it all the time to find recipes from the CSA box.

Eating by Color, A Williams Sonoma Book

We first started paying attention to the types of fruits and veggies we should be eating, in order to control cholesterol, and get other health benefits. This book divides fruits and veggies into five color groups, and also includes a sixth group. That group is legumes, grains and nuts. Here is a link to a pdf file that includes the fruits and veggies only.

Today our lunch was a perfect example of eating most of the rainbow. Later in the post, I complete the rainbow at dinner.

Purple/blue, the first color, includes the blueberries in the dessert bread. Green shows up more than once, but is really present in the mixed greens in the soup. Because the apple was a green skinned apple, it is also included. White/tan, one of the choices that slows the absorption of cholesterol, shows up in the garlic and ginger in the soup. Red checks in via the chunky tomato sauce that I had made this summer and used in the soup. My chunky sauce also includes carrots, but not much, and onions, so orange and white make a tiny appearance in the soup via the sauce.

The black beans and the pistachios round out the legumes and nut category that the book includes. Again, nuts, legumes and whole grains help in our fight to avoid cancer.

Dinner completed the list. I tweaked my pumpkin hummus recipe to make it have a bit more zing, and made it again this afternoon. It includes the orange/yellow category with the pumpkin, and more legumes with the chickpeas, plus white/tan from the garlic.

pumpkin hummus

I happen to like the way the book assists me in using my CSA veggies and buying fruits to round out our diet. There are lots of other publications available on the web that outline good choices too. Like this one. Who doesn’t want to boost their immune system?

Oh yeah, the apple cider counts too. And, that glass of wine. Interesting, isn’t it?

Tomorrow is CSA day. I wonder what colors we will get this week.

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