Thu 9 Aug 2007
Obsessed Committed? Yes!
So in my obsessive persevering ways I found a local farm.
This is Richardson’s Farm on Ebeneezer RD in White Marsh, MD. My new favorite grocery store!
I bought:
1 qt tomatoes
1 qt nectarines
4 ears of corn
2 red peppers
2 purple peppers (a la Peter Piper)
1 dozen large farm eggs
1 cantaloupe
1 seedless watermelon
1 4 lb roasting chicken
2- 3.5 oz fillet mignon (grass fed, no antibiotics, no hormones) from Roseda Beef in Monkon MD
1 - 1.5 lb Pot Roast from Roseda
2 - 1 qt each of hormone free/antibiotic free ice cream (strawberry and chocolate peanut butter) from Keyes Dairy in Havre de Grace, MD
1- 4oz block of colby cheese from Keyes
I spent :
68.00
I can not believe it. I would have paid as much at Safeway and MORE at Whole Foods.
Ummm… we are making a weekly trip. They are also at our public market and farmers markets that are much closer (more like a 3 mile trip!). I just had to get up and go today!
The food is all from less than a 100 mile radius from my home in Baltimore City!
I drove 13.12 miles. My car gets 33-35 mpg highway. The trip was 19 minutes to get there.
Less than a gallon was used to drive there and we supported our local foodshed.
ROCK ON!
So obsessive committed… yup! D is really interested in going to the farm too. Yea us!
Sidebar….
(for all of my fibery friends that look in on the Ol’Adventures blog for some decent yarn pron… I promise I will post yarny and knitting stuff too!)
Anyone interested in separate eat whole/eat local blog? One where you can post your own adventures in eating whole and eating local?
Just a thought!
I will leave you with a peek at dinner:
fresh broccoli, Maryland white corn, and White Balsamic, dijon mustard, rosemary marinated pork tenderloin. YUM!
Ice cream for dessert!
August 10th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Hey Erin — there’s a blogger in Takoma Park that you really might be interested in. thepurloinedletter.blogspot.com. Lots of local foods and even farm co-op info. The cowboy might love co-op and I think her son is about his age. Check her out!
August 10th, 2007 at 6:54 am
fresh ice cream!! bonus!!!!!!!!
August 10th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Thanks for sharing the tip about Richardson’s Farm!
Here’s a list of the farmers’ markets in Maryland: http://www.mda.state.md.us/md_products/farmers_market_dir.php
and the home page of the Waverly Farmers’ Market, which I believe is the only year-round market in the Baltimore area: http://www.32ndstreetmarket.org/
I have “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” in my stack of summer reading books. I’m saving it for a final summer treat because I grew up in exactly that part of the world and can visualize what she is talking about. I’ve met the illustrator; he is an artist and also a wonderful cook at a funky little cafe near the farm where Barbara Kingsolver lives, so she went local for that aspect of her book as well.
One other thing though you might have already thought of it…using more whole foods and cooking from scratch makes it easier to get the Cowboy involved in cooking from a young age; little kids love to help and if you can find tasks that he can do safely without driving you too crazy he’ll learn a lot of useful and healthy skills for life. My 14 yo is the resident pancake/waffle chef and is gradually accumulating some nice pans and cookbooks that she will have when she leaves home.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Yummy food! We’ve taken on the local food thing with a vengeance in the past few days too. In addition the DH and I have taken really long walks in a park each evening while the girls play on a playground in the center of the track. Coffee and bananas will continue to be purchased from far away locations, but we don’t have much of a choice. Hooray for feeling better. I’m getting ready to cast on some socks in the “Heide” colorway this afternoon. I can’t wait to see how they look. Have a great weekend.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Wow - dinner looks great!
August 10th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Yum! I like the idea of having the separate blog for the food, but you will have to spend time to update both blog, which could be a lot more work, demanding your time. I also go to local farm store to get fresh ingredients, they just taste so much better!
August 10th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
You have white corn! I’m jealous. I used to be able to get it in the area I grew up in. Now I have moved across the province and all we have is the peaches and cream. Not that it isn’t good. But it isn’t the white lightning corn i remember from my youth. Boy, do I sound old or what? Let me tell you about the time I had to hop to school through the 10 foot snowdrifts cause my family only had 1 pair of boots and my sister had the other one….
August 10th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I enjoy my weekly trip to the Farmer’s market here in Arizona.
August 10th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Wow! That’s great! We found that buying local has saved us money too … and that and there is alot less waste when you really take the time to think about what you are buying. Dinner looks great! I’m glad you are enjoying this.
August 10th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
“I can not believe it. I would have paid as much at Safeway and MORE at Whole Foods.”
I can believe it, I was very surprised to see how much I saved when I eliminated “junk” processed foods and focused on “whole foods”. Amazing isn’t it? Fresh is not only better, it is cheaper too.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Love your blog! I knit too, and we also have made the jump to eating local. Wow - do I feel better or what?? And the produce and eggs KEEP so much better!! Grocery store produce, being old by the time it gets to me, goes bad before the week is out. But the farmer’s market and farm store foods stay fresh for 7-10 days if I need to hold them that long. Eggs hold for 2 weeks; they’re eaten by then. Yummy!!
August 13th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Very cool farm! We hit the farmer’s market weekly, and then get a grocery delivery from a company called Planet Organics (SF Bay Area).
For a recipe - I have grown to love greens, and they are a nutritional powerhouse:
2-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion or some leeks, chopped
Olive oil (or bacon grease…)
1-2 bunches of greens - chard, collards, kale, beet greens, spinach, or stuff all mixed up (I buy fresh beets and toss the tops into other greens)
A few tablespoons of liquid: chicken/veg broth, soy sauce (if you like salt), wine (red or white)
Optional: bit of vinegar, up to 1 tsp sugar
Salt, pepper, and red chili flakes to taste
Heat 1-2 Tbsp. oil on medium-high (or bacon grease!) in a large frying-type pan. Saute onions until they start to turn translucent. Add garlic. Saute one minute or so. Add chopped greens, which have been freshly rinsed and are still wet. Add a bit of liquid of your choice (broth, soy sauce, wine, or a mix of these). Put a lid on it, and cook 3-10 minutes until the greens look all wilted. Add sugar (optional), vinegar (optional), salt, pepper, chili flakes. Yum yum!
Variations: saute red bell pepper with the onion; add chopped tomatoes in the last 2 minutes of cooking; add Chinese black bean sauce; toss in whatever other veggies are sitting around; add extra broth to make a soup; add about 1/2 can of garbanzo beans; cook bacon first and then put crumbled bacon in…