CSA, Week 9

August 20 was the ninth week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer's Market).

Our bounty:


- patty pan squash
- kale
- green onions
- Asian eggplant
- blue potatoes
- lots of different tomatoes
I'm not sure which is which---here are the choices:


Local meal, no challenge:
- grilled beef filet from Laurel Ridge Farm in Litchfield, CT
- baked blue potato from Waldingfield
- patty pan squash sauteed with green onions and tomato (all from Waldingfield) in olive oil and a tad of chicken broth, salt and pepper (from out there). I used very little seasoning to allow the natural flavors of the vegetables to dominate.

Another Locavore Vacation Day

After spending most of the day in outlets in Manchester buying clothing made in China and Indonesia, we went down to Bennington to their Farmers Market.

We scored:
- organic beets, carrots, garlic, purple "green" beans, Chinese eggplant, and eggs from Wildstone Farm
- organic watermelon from Mighty Food Farm
- corn from Darling Farmstand
- San Marino plum tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, and peppers from the Youth Horticulture Project (grown at Mount Anthony Middle School)
- blueberries (no spray) from Apple Hill Orchard
- multi-grain bread from Avonlea Farm Brick Oven Bakery



We feasted:


The "casserole" consists of a bottom layer of hamburger, topped with a sauteed vegetable medley (one of every vegetable we bought, except for the beets and corn, shown separately), topped with Cabot extra sharp cheddar (it's local here!) and baked just enough to melt the cheese.

Local Meal on Vacation

Frankly, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to keep up with local fooding on vacation, considering how much of it depends on knowing where to go to get the good stuff. Sure, we packed up provisions in the cooler, but certainly not enough to eat for over a week's worth of time. So, an adventure awaits.

When we stopped at Chase Hill Farm in Warwick, MA for raw milk, we also picked up some farmstead cheese and two pounds of hamburger meat (from organic, grass fed cows!). Here's Monday night's dinner:

The tomato came from Waldingfield Farm via the cooler. The bun came from Shaw's in Arlington, VT and who knows where they got it.

(Not enrolled in any formal challenge.)

CSA, Week 7

I'm not usually the member of the household who gets to go to the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers' Market for our CSA pick-up. The market is open from 2-6 PM and I'm not generally in the neighborhood during those hours. However, this week it needed to be me and so I went.

Boy, have I been missing out. This is a most excellent Farmer's Market. There's music, fresh popcorn, and the pop-up tents are arranged like like a little village.



August 5 was the seventh week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer's Market). Our bounty included:


- lots of red lettuce
- green beans
- patty pan squash
- cucumbers
- green bell peppers
- heirloom tomatoes
- yellow squash
- kale
- jalapeno and chili peppers

Patrick of Waldingfield Farm, serving a customer:


My local dinner (no challenge) was:
A salad of red lettuce (from Waldingfield), a sliced hard-boiled egg (from Arno's in Kent), shaved cheese (from Sankow's Beaver Brook), basil (from Stoneledge Hollow), and a sliced pickled jalapeno (from Sister CG at Bluestone Farm). I drizzled some of Waldingfield's salad dressing over it.

CSA, Week 6

July 29 was the sixth week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer's Market). Our bounty included:
- mixed salad greens
- sugar snap peas
- green beans
- Swiss chard
- patty pan squash
- cucumbers
- green bell peppers
- Chinese eggplant
- sun gold cherry tomatoes

Our local dinner (no challenge) was:
- patty pan squash (from Waldingfield) stuffed with sauteed pork sausage from Ox Hollow farm, peppers, garlic, onions (from various farms), and cheese from Sankow's Beaver Brook.

Local Meal, No Challenge

Last night's local meal is not a part of any of the ongoing organized challenges, but a local delight nonetheless.

Rib eye steaks from Stuarts.



Home made pasta, using:
- all purpose wheat flour, wheat from Lightning Tree Farm, milled and sold by Wild Hive Farm, both in Millbrook, NY (local wheat!!)
- eggs from Arno's Farm in Kent, CT
- olive oil from Italy
tossed with a sauteed medley of:
- tomatoes from Mitchell's Farm in Southbury, CT
- arugula from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm
- garlic from Smith Acres Farm, Niantic, CT
- shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, from Italy



Delicious and fun to make!

CSA, Week 5

July 22 (today) is the fifth week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer's Market). Our bounty included:
- mixed salad greens
- sugar peas (or are these snap peas?)
- kale
- Swiss chard
- yellow summer squash
- patty pan squash
- broccoli



Our local dinner (no challenge) was Stuarts beef filets, tossed salad with Waldingfield dressing, and Brussels sprouts. The wine: McLaughlin.

We also put by the Swiss chard, sauteed with olive oil and garlic scapes.

Saturday's Forage, 6/28/2008

We packed up the cooler and the camera and headed north to the New Milford Farmers Market. We got:
- bread from Wave Hill Bread
- pork cuts from Ox Hollow Farm
- beets and fennel bulb from Riverbank Farm
- blueberry/raspberry jam, strawberries, and shortbread from Rose's Berry Farm
-strawberry jam and scallion scapes from Mountain View Farm.
-more soap Goatboy Soap (My purple sweatshirt is in, but not at this location this week. No worries--given the temperature lately, I'm not in a big rush.)

Waldingfield Farms was there and this week's offerings looked good...can't wait for Tuesday for our CSA drop.





Goat Boy's brother with some of the kids:


Mountain View Farm, from Kent, CT


Rose's Berry Farm, from South Glastonbury, CT


Seriously, the folks at supermarkets will not take the time to explain to you how things grow or how to cook something new to you like these folks will. Where have I been all my life?!

Okay, enough time marveling...back on the road and off to Stuarts to pick up our order. Jim was his usual jovial self and we made off with several thick ribeye's porterhouses, a few packs of burgers, and several other items to see us through the next few weeks.

That night, we enjoyed some burgers with fresh mozz (from New Pond), some greenhouse tomatoes from Maple Bank Farms, lettuce from Waldingfield, all on Wave Hill bread.

Local Meal, Not a Challenge

Tonight was a 95% local meal:
- beef tenderloins from Stuarts
- Sauteed greens (mustard greens and swiss chard from Waldingfield, garlic scapes from from Holbrook's, kale from our garden, olive oil, garlic and fennel from the world)
- boiled beets from Holbrook's
- water from our well

Delicious, nutritious, and local!

Weekly local meal, not a challenge

I'm not currently active in any of the challenges going on (like One Local Summer), but we're certainly still eating locally. Mostly, local foods are well integrated into our daily menus and often we are delighted that an entire meal came from local fare. Like last night...

Bok Choy and Garlic Scapes with Beef. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Maple Bank Farm (ingredients annotated with origin.)

2 garlic scapes (Maple Bank Farm)
1 bok choy (Maple Bank Farm)
Sesame oil
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp honey (Dave's Honey Farm, Easton, CT)
Salt and Pepper

Wash the bok choy and garlic scapes. Slice garlic scapes diagonally. Cut bok choy stems separately from the leaves. Cut bok choy stems in quarters. Slightly cut up the leaves.

Saute the garlic scapes in the sesame and olive oils.

Add the bok choy stems, then add the honey, salt, and pepper to caramelize as cooking. Cook slowly until stems are tender.

Add the chopped leaves and cook an additional two to three minutes on medium high heat.

At this point, we added some sliced beef (left over from the huge top sirloin we cooked the other night - from Stuarts).

Of course, we served McLaughlin's Vista Reposa.

Dark Days Local Challenge

Saturday's dinner consisted of pork chops from Ox Hollow Farm covered with sauteed onion and mango chutney (not local, but homemade by a friend). The sauteed spinach is from Starlight Farm, Durham, CT. The red wine, of course, is from McLaughlin.

Check out the challenge recaps at: http://urbanhennery.com/

Dark Days Challenge

Another couple of accidental local meals...

Last night, we had burgers (ready made ground beef patties) from Stuarts. I made mine a cheeseburger, courtesy of Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, with lettuce from Two Guys from Woodbridge, on French country bread slices from Wave Hill Bakery. And of course, red wine from McLaughlin.

Tonight was leftover ribeyes from Stuarts, sauteed sliced potatoes from Riverbank, and not local baby bok choy (and of course, red wine from McLaughlin).

I find that as time goes by, I'm not doing as many deliberate 90% local meals, but have local food integrated in just about each meal or snack.

For example, almost every morning I have yogurt from Hawthorne Valley Farms with a dollop of jam from Stoneledge Farm.

I drink several cups of coffee throughout the day--all of them with local raw milk, lately from Foxfire Farm. I also drink one cup of tea a day with local honey.

I usually have cheese and crackers, the cheese being local and the crackers being worldly. Lately, I'm into those pretzel slices. Excellent with Sankow's soft white cheese (the herbless version of the herbed cheese).

While it lasts, I have my Macoun applesauce (from the freezer, sauced by me, apples by Apple Ridge Farm in Brookfield).

My dinners generally include at least one local item, sometimes two, sometimes more.

I'm liking this!

Dark Days Local Challenge

On Sunday, we had a respectable Palm Sunday Dinner featuring a smoked ham from Ox Hollow Farm in Roxbury (obtained at the Fairfield Winter Market).

The ham was absolutely delicious. I'd intended to use some apple cider as the liquid in the roasting pan, but none of my cider was defrosted. Time to improvise. I did have some pineapple juice in the pantry, but it turned out that it had expired long ago so it was going down the drain and not on my prize ham. Keep looking. Believe it or not, we had a mason jar of maple tree sap in the fridge, a gift from the Sisters (they know I love sweet tea--a hot beverage, ready around the midpoint between sap and syrup), so I used that. It was perfect-o-mundo!

Winter 2008 Dark Days Challenge

Curious about the Winter 2008 Dark Days Challenge? Check it out at Urban Hennery. I'm quite behind in my posting and have three challenge meals with pix for this two-week stint.

On 2/14 (Valentine's Day), we made heart shaped ravioli, stuffed with a mixture of butternut squash, a soft cow cheese whose flavor is a cross between ricotta salata and goat cheese, and sage drizzled with a brown butter hazelnut sauce. The ravioli stuffing was all local. The usual disclaimers about the ravioli shell (home made pasta using flour of unknown origins and a local egg and an Italian olive oil).



On 2/17, we had a beef short rib ragout over tagliatelle. The short ribs are from Stuart's. The wine is McLaughlin's Vista Reposa. The same disclaimer about the tagliatelle.



On 2/19, we had ribeyes from Stuart's accompanied by butternut squash, sauteed mushrooms, a frisse salad courtesy of Two Guys From Woodbridge, and wine by McLaughlin. The mushrooms were from Stop-N-Shop.



Hope your meals have been happy, healthy, and satisfying.

Dark Days Challenge 2008

Well, there have been several local meals over the course of the two weeks, but this one was my favorite: pork chops, macaroni, and gravy. When I say gravy, I mean the Italian-American red stuff which some might call sauce. I reserve the word sauce for the meatless varieties. The simmer-all-day-and-eat-at-three-in-the-afternoon stuff has meat (typically braciole, sausages, and meatballs) and thus, is a gravy.

I made this gravy by pan searing the pork chops (from Ox Hollow Farm) then adding two jars of Waldingfield Farm's organic tomato-basil pasta sauce. I let that simmer while I made the macaroni. I made rigatoni from scratch using Hodgson Mills semolina flour (not local, but as close as I can get to my home that I know of). The olive oil is from Italy (Marco Polo). I boiled the macaroni in water that came from my own well with salt that came from Rhode Island.

I grated some cheese from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, that was rather similar to a pecorino romano, although it's cow cheese. And of course, the wine was Vista Reposa from McLaughlin Vineyards.

The Accidental Challenge Dinner

I'd defrosted some chicken from Herondale Farm (just over the border in NY). Tonight we roasted it with shallots from Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown, organic carrots (locals long since been eaten), some store-bought chicken broth, some red peppers we had on hand (origins unknown), and thyme and sage from Missy's Farm in Warwick, NY (dried and bagged by us).

For our vegetable or carb (however you want to call it), we had acorn squash from Waldingfield Farm (acquired at the New Haven Farmer's Market this weekend). We quartered and seasoned that with a little butter, pumpkin pie spice, and a few drizzles of maple syrup from the Community of the Holy Spirit's Bluestone Farm in Brewster, NY.

The funny thing (to me) is that we weren't even trying to create a mostly local meal. It was an easy after-a-workday meal made from the stuff we had on hand! Wish every day could be like this.

Dark Days Eat Local Challenge

Mostly local meal of the week, 1/19/2008:



- Meatballs, made from Stuart Family Farm ground beef
- Home made pasta
- Gravy (a red, meat based "sauce") from the freezer from "before"
- Bread, from Apicella's Bakery, New Haven
- Salad, lettuce from Two Guys from Woodbridge (organic and hydroponic greens)
- Wine, Vista Riposa, from McLaughlin Vineyards

Dark Days Local Challenge, Winter Extension, Week 1

Thanks to an enthusiastic response, Laura over at Urban Hennery has extended the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge...

My mostly local meal for the week was tonight:
- Roast beef, top round from Stuart Family Farm in Bridgewater, CT. Delicious.
- Broccoli in a garlic, olive oil, & chicken broth. The garlic is local. Sorry to say, the broccoli was Bird's Eye.
- Semolina egg noodles with butter (Cabot, regional). Okay, so the semolina is not local. It's probably from North Dakota (which produces 2/3 of America's durum wheat. So, if you buy a box of pasta from Italy, it may very well have come from North Dakota). BUT--I'm hoping to get redemption points for making these noodles myself (yes, from prime ingredients: semolina, egg, olive oil)! (Plus, the egg I used came from McLaughlin's Vineyard's neighbor!)
- Wine, from McLaughlin Vineyards.

Looking forward to the nextie.