Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Many of us have differing ideas about exactly what ‘local’ means, but I tend to think of ‘local’ as anything within 100 miles of my house.  As such, most of Maryland is included - including the Chesapeake Bay.  Chesapeake Bay seafood is pretty easy to find, but you have to think twice about whether or not it’s healthy for you.  The Bay has a ‘dead zone’ and is on the EPA’s ‘dirty waters’ list. 

The Bay is constantly being polluted with excess nitrogen, which is terrible for the health of the Bay.  The number one nitrogen polluter of the Bay is agricultural run-off, particularly manure and waste from chicken production.  I’m told that chickens outnumber people by just about 1,000 to 1 in the area.  Perdue Farms is based in Maryland.

New-ish governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, has proposed some new regulations that would finally let the state’s environmental agency police large chicken farms, which would - in turn - improve the quality of water in the Bay (and the quality of the seafood).  The regulations would require large chicken farms to get state permits, incorporate pollution controls, and allow inspections, or face some pretty hefty fines.  Of course, chicken industry spokespeople aren’t overly thrilled by the idea and say its unnecessary, saying that it might be cost prohibitive to family farmers.

Interestingly, federal law required Maryland to begin policing chicken farm pollution three years ago.

Dairy and pig farms have been regulated in Maryland for years, so it seems like a good idea to regulate poultry farms as well.  I have to wonder, though, if it might be more advantageous to require farmers to use more sustainable farming practices, rather than simple pollution prevention methods.  Even big corporate farms like Perdue could utilize at least some sustainable practices [like Rumbleway Farm does] without a huge cost, right?

Whatever the case, if this will significantly impact the quality of the Chesapeake Bay (and the food that comes from it), I’m all for it.

Dark Days: frozen treasures

Now that it’s January, and both garden and CSA programs are looming, I feel pressured to use up all of my preserved food from last season.  For dinner last night, I hauled out a local chicken from Godshall’s Poultry in Reading Terminal, and then rooted around in my chest freezer for ideas for side dishes.  Every time I roast a whole chicken I’m compelled to make mashed potatoes, but I knew that my freezer would hold some kind of alternate treasure.

As it turns out, I was right - one of the first things I pulled out of the freezer was a back of roasted butternut squash.  Hmm.  Chicken and butternut squash.  Good.  And then I pulled out a bag of broccoli.  It certainly would make for a nice color combination, so I went with it.  Both have good, strong flavor, too - perfect to stand up to the citrus marinated chicken I planned.

This past weekend at the Fair Food Farmstand, I snagged about half a dozen of the organic oranges from a family farm in Florida, knowing that I wanted to use them for marinade.  Those oranges are really the only non-local part of the meal.  The other marinade ingredients: garlic from Landisdale Farm, bay leaf from my garden, and a bit of salt and pepper.  After the chicken was done roasting, I combined the pan drippings with the leftover marinade and reduced it, mixed it with local butter for a great gravy for the chicken.  There’s something really fantastic about fresh citrus in January, and what’s better is that even though it’s not local, I’m still supporting a small grower.

The broccoli was one of the last things I received in the CSA program last year.  I simply reheated it with some local butter.  The roasted butternut was also from the CSA program.  I heated it with some buckwheat honey from Linvilla Orchards and local butter.

It was a really great mid-Winter meal, and I felt great about getting to use some of my freezer bounty!

So you want to be a farmer?

Monday, January 14, 2008

Now here’s a great opportunity!  “My” farmers at Blooming Glen Farm in Perkasie are on the hunt for interns: 

Interns wanted for 2008 on Bucks County, PA farm

Blooming Glen Farm is seeking three full time, full season interns from April 1st to mid-November for 2008 (couples welcome). We are a diverse organic vegetable farm marketing to a 160 member CSA (all on farm pick-up), a weekly farmers market in Philadelphia, and local restaurants. We grow a large variety of field crops and devote the bulk of the space in our 5 greenhouses to intense tomato and heirloom tomato production. We are located in scenic Upper Bucks County, an hour from downtown Philadelphia.

We are a young ambitious farm looking for enthusiastic hard workers with a sincere interest in sustainable and organic agriculture. You will be an integral part of our team, and gain hands on experience in all aspects of the farm from seed to harvest. We provide a stipend and housing in a beautifully restored farmhouse.

Please see our website at www.bloomingglenfarm.com for more details about the internship and to apply.

Farmers Tricia and Tom are incredibly friendly, smart, creative and passionate and it shows in everything at the farm—from Tricia’s luscious food photography to the perfectly organized pick up days.  I love that they hold a work requirement for members, and the variety of produce they grow is unlike any CSA around.  As a member, I especially appreciate that they hold potluck events throughout the year, write a bi-weekly email newsletter, have an online calendar and educate us on the sometimes strange veggies we find each week. 

Clearly, I can’t say enough great things about Blooming Glen!  I’m willing to bet the internship program they offer is a pretty incredible, empowering and unique experience. 

Hmm.

I’m beginning to think I could be convinced to apply…

Bababloo

Sunday, January 13, 2008

If you saw this cheese in your refrigerator, you’d probably make a face and toss it.  And you would be missing out!  This is another lovely cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey - what they call Bababloo.

Bababloo is a mixed milk (sheep and cow) blue cheese that is cave-aged from ninety days to six months.  I generally don’t love blue cheeses, but I really love this one - it tastes like the raw milk cheddar available from the Farm Fresh Foodstand in Reading Terminal with blue cheese mixed in.  It’s salty and creamy, with a really great blue taste.

This is a stellar snacking cheese! The block in the photo lasted about 15 minutes in my house.  It is fantastic with pears.

Farm to Philly Fiber

Spinners, knitters, crocheters, there’s a fiber CSA worth mentioning here: Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm. (Where the sheep and goats go to the beach!) Just like with fruits and veg, you buy a share of the shearing. It’s a one-time dealio, and you can choose the format of your share: roving (for spinning) or yarn. I haven’t seen or handled it, but I am in love enough with the idea that I almost don’t care. (And besides, their herd is full of promosing stuff: Cormo, angora, Corriedale, etc.) Although an ideal situation would be a mid-Atlantic fiber CSA, until the idea catches on, this one will have to do.

January Garden Soup

While last week’s frugal winter soup focused on ingredients frozen from our summer garden, this weekend’s soup used some fresh stuff I picked yesterday thanks to the disturbingly warm winter temperatures we’ve been having.  I meandered out to the garden to dump some compost scraps and was a bit surprised to see that the kale plants had a lot of young leaves on them.  I guess a week of temperatures in the 60s got the plants going again.  I grabbed some scissors and snipped a bunch of the leaves to add to my baked potato soup along with fresh parsley, rosemary and thyme from my kitchen garden. 

Since my soups are usually improvised, I didn’t write down the exact measurements.  I started with some melted butter and sautéed celery, onions and garlic.  I then added about ¼ c. of spelt flour from Small Valley Milling (see story about the farm here from Farming Magazine [available at the Fair Food Farmstand], about 4 cups of veggie broth and some milk.  Then, I added some baked potatoes that I had mashed and some that I diced along with the fresh herbs.  In the last ten minutes, I added the chopped baby kale. 

Because my husband is a big guy that isn’t necessarily satisfied with just a bowl of soup, I try to bake up something to go alongside.  This time, I found a recipe for wheat germ muffins in one of my favorite cookbooks for practical, frugal cooking using whole foods:  American Wholefoods Cuisine by Nikki and David Goldbeck.  I understand that there is a second edition of this cookbook, but my copy is one that my husband found for me at a used bookstore a few years ago.  I’ve gotten many basic vegetarian recipes from it.  I substituted the spelt flour for half of the whole wheat flour called for in the recipe with good results.  I’m going to keep experimenting with this flour, but so far it’s been great.

All in all, it was a simple supper.  I’m glad I happened to spy the kale because I’m sure the forecasted snow will kill the plants. Then again, who would have thought that they’d be alive and producing in January?

Decisions, decisions: choosing a CSA program

Thursday, January 10, 2008

It’s around that time when people who have opted to participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have to choose a program and buy a share.  Last Summer, contributors wrote about their CSA shares through Lancaster Farm Fresh, Blooming Glen Farm, and Red Earth Farm.  There are a huge number of CSA programs in the area, though - when I plugged in my zip code to Local Harvest, 31 listings popped up!  No doubt, there are many other CSA programs not listed on Local Harvest, too.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of a CSA, the quick and dirty is that you pay the farmer up front for a share in what the farmer produces during the typical produce farming season and then you pick up your share for the week at a specific location.  The benefits to the farmer are that he/she/they get a fair price for the food they grow and it enables them to maintain their farms far better than more traditional sales models.  The benefits to you (the CSA member) are insane amounts of super fresh produce (usually picked within hours of your share pick up) that is often grown organically and sustainably, plus you know exactly where your food is coming from.  Sometimes you can find a CSA who offers other things for sale through the share program - eggs, meat, and milk, for instance.

Sadly, many CSA programs get overlooked simply because they have no online presence.  The information about crops typically included, price, duration of share period, pick up locations, etc. might not be readily available on the farm’s website and we move on until we find a program that does have all that stuff easily accessible.  I’m as guilty of that as anyone - I picked my CSA program last year not based on reputation or crops typically included in a share, but simply because Lancaster Farm Fresh had the most information available online and the pick up spot was super convenient for me.

I think the majority of FTP contributors are really happy with the CSA programs they participated in last year (and years prior).  I had a pretty good experience with Lancaster Farm Fresh, but variety is the spice of life and all that - I think we’re going to try something new this year.  Right now we’re waffling between Landisdale Farm’s CSA program (that offers a pick up on Saturday mornings at the Clark Park Farmer’s Market) and the CSA program at Red Hill Farm (the share is picked up at the farm, which isn’t too far away from our house...I’m just not sure yet what day of the week it is).  Obviously, I still have lots of homework to do before the final decision is made!

Now that I’ve gone one season participating in a CSA, I can’t imagine not being in one.  I truly loathe the grocery store, and I like the surprise of not knowing exactly what you’ll get in your share from week to week.  It definitely encouraged me to be more creative, try new recipes, and spend time preserving what I couldn’t eat in a week.

No doubt one day all of our local CSA programs will have an online presence with plenty of information immediately available.  Until that time, though, we’re going to have to do things the old fashioned way: pick up the phone.

Did You Do It?

Way back in September of last year(!), I wrote a post about drying your own sweet corn, an age-old method of preserving the summer’s harvest in a manner that didn’t take up nearly as much space (or require any fancy equipment) as canning or freezing.  It was something my grandmother had told me about, a story you can read here if you’d like to learn more about food traditions in my Pennsylvania Dutch farming family. 

Now the question is, did you do it?  Did you dry your own corn?  I hope the answer is “yes”, because I have a delightful dish to share that features that crunchy dried corn.  The resulting chewy-but-not-soft texture is very unique and compliments the rather nutty flavor nicely. 

OLD-FASHIONED CREAMY (dried) CORN

2 c. dried sweet corn
2 1/4 c. fat free milk
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
2 t. sugar
2 T. butter
dash of cayenne pepper
freshly ground nutmeg
generous pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 or 4 strips of cooked (soy) bacon, crumbled
1/4 t. dried marjoram


Place corn in a large heavy saucepan and stir in milk and heavy cream.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to use, stir in the sugar, butter, cayenne, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 35-40 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.  Place in warmed serving dish and top with crumbled bacon and marjoram.  Serve immediately.

Michael Pollan at the Free Library

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow night, Michael Pollan is speaking at the Free Library of Philadelphia.  Pollan is the author of a book that influenced many of us, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as The Botany of Desire.  He’ll be discussing his latest book In Defense of Food.  You might know Pollan’s treatise: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Pollan’s talk is scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm at the 1901 Vine branch.  Pollan will also be speaking tomorrow morning at the White Dog Cafe, but that’s been sold out since mid-December at least (trust me, I tried to get in).  If the White Dog event is any indication, the Pollan event at the library will be packed!

Dark days: the perfect burger

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Sometimes you just want a burger.  And since the weather has been so incredibly wacky and totally unseasonable this week, we felt compelled to grill.  With a couple of Angus burgers in hand from Buck Run Farm, I looked around to see what else I could throw on a burger.  Some of the provolone from Cherry Grove Farm was the perfect cheese for it - it melts perfectly!  And I had nearly forgotten about the bag of cute, little baby shiitake mushrooms from Oley Valley Mushrooms I purchased.  They got a quick saute in local butter and went on top of the burger.  The bun was a roll from Le Bus.

And the perfect finish: a bit of my homemade catsup.

It was the best burger I’ve had in a long time!

Coincidentally, I discovered something of interest when I was looking around the Buck Run Farm website.  They only have a license to sell Angus burgers...but if you want steaks or a roast or something, Buck Run is willing to sell you a market-ready steer or part interest in one.  I’ve heard of farmers doing this in other places, but I didn’t realize that any local farms offered this.

Curried Squash and Potato Soup

Monday, January 07, 2008

One of my favorite winter vegetables is butternut squash, and one of my favorite ways to prepare it is in soup, especially now that we’ve had some actual winter weather.  Last week, I made a batch of soup with squash, potatoes, and carrots, which came out well enough to inspire envy among my coworkers.  The measurements for spices are all approximate--I never really measure things in cooking--but I think the proportions are about right.

Curried Squash and Potato Soup

1 onion, chopped into squares
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 square inch of ginger, minced
1 medium butternut squash, cubed
2 medium potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, chopped
3 cups of vegetable stock
1/2 T cumin seeds
1/2 T brown mustard seeds
1-1/2 T cumin
1 T coriander
1 t cardamon
1-1/2 T garam masala
1/4 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 dried chile
2 T dried parsley (approx. measure before crushing)
1 T turmeric
1/2 t fenugreek

Heat the oil with cumin seeds and mustard seeds.  When the seeds start to pop, add the onion; when the onion is almost clear, add the garlic and then the ginger.  Start adding ground spices at this point.  Add the potatoes, dried chile, squash, and stock to cover.  Simmer for a few minutes, mostly covered, and then add the carrots.  Adjust spices to taste, and simmer until the veggies are fork-soft, adding stock if necessary.  Purée and serve with a slice of homemade bread. 

Makes approximately 6 main-dish servings.

I’m fond of soup that I can eat with a fork, but it wouldn’t be hard to make this thinner if your tastes are different.

Frugal Fanny

One of the reasons why eating with the seasons and preserving the harvest to enjoy when fresh, local foods are limited appeals so much to me is because it requires resourcefulness. There’s something reassuring and satisfying about reaching into my freezer in the basement and defrosting pumpkin puree for muffins or grabbing a container of applesauce for my toddler to enjoy during the week. It’s also good family economics for us.  Growing a lot of our own produce means that I really hate to waste anything; I know exactly how much time and energy went into growing all of our plants and wasting parsley stems, for instance, seems counterproductive (I save them in a ziploc bag to add to my stock pot). 

My frugal tendencies mean that soup is a nearly ideal winter meal for us.  I can use some homemade stock from the freezer along with veggies frozen from our garden.  Some of them, like the green beans pictured (along with some frozen parsley cubes and lima beans that were also added to last night’s soup), weren’t the best for eating fresh because they had gotten too big on the vine.  They are perfectly suitable for a winter soup though where texture is not paramount.  My basic freezer/clean out the fridge/use-up-some-inexpensive-pantry-items soup starts with carrots, celery, onion and garlic sauteed in oil before veggie stock is added. From there, I may add some canned or dried beans, various vegetables from the freezer and the crisper, a handful of grains or pasta and various herbs and spices.  The result is always different but usually very tasty, especially when served with a homemade biscuit like the savory scallion scones we had last night.  I must admit that I feel virtuous using up those some of those homely ingredients and turning them into a delicious, healthy meal for my family for pennies.

A trio of cheeses

The Fair Food Farmstand recently got some new cheeses into stock from Cherry Grove Farm.  Cherry Grove is located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.  In addition to cheese made from raw milk from grass-fed cows, you can also get eggs there and grass-fed beef and pork.  Interestingly, they also raise the cutest Tamworth pigs, a heritage breed, I’ve ever seen in my life.  The farm is certified organic, and is committed to sustainable agricultural practices.

The Harvest Toma, pictured above, is cave-aged for two months.  It’s a hard-ish rind cheese and Cherry Grove says its “semisoft texture makes it meltable, spreadable”.  We gave it a try during my volunteer shift at the farmstand on Saturday and I thought it was pretty good - nice texture and just the slightest bit smelly.  Sarah thought perhaps the cheese might be improved by bringing it to room temperature, and I did give it a go at home - opinions may vary, but I don’t think these cheese’s texture was helped.  The texture did change a little, but it seemed rubbery.  I definitely prefer this cheese cold.  I didn’t not test out whether it was a good melting cheese, but it wasn’t super spreadable.  I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.

Cherry Grove’s ‘provolone’ was my favorite of the three new cheeses.  It’s texture and taste scream ‘provolone’ and it melts perfectly [I used some on a burger for dinner last night].  The provolone is also aged for two months.  This cheese is definitely more dolce than piccante.  I think the provolone will end up being a regular resident in my fridge.

Lastly, there is the Jersey Giovane.  It’s Cherry Grove’s handmade mozzarella.  It does string like mozzarella, but I wasn’t wild about it.  I think I might prefer it if it came packed in water, rather than plastic wrap.  The cheese seemed a little dry to me...and not nearly soft enough for good homemade mozzarella.  Don’t get me wrong - the cheese isn’t bad and is far superior to the crappy mass-produced mozzarella you can get at the grocery store.  It’s just not the best mozzarella I’ve ever tasted.

Going green

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Environmentalism is hot right now.  I’m certainly glad to see it, but I hope that it’s just not something trendy that people do for a while and then move on to the Next!Big!Thing!  The same can be said for the idea of eating local.  Many of us have been trying to eat seasonally and locally as often as possible for years, but now that ‘locavore’ is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year, well...I worry that it’s going to get overplayed and that people will get burnt out on it.

It seems that foodies are already being saturated by the message.  Bon Appetit’s latest issue, The Green Issue, is filled with information about eating seasonally and lists of ‘eco-friendly restaurants, even a brief interview with Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon (the 100 Mile Diet folks).  I thoroughly enjoyed the issue and found lots of great recipe ideas, but other readers are not so excited.  They want something new, and eating local is old news.  ‘Green’ style has been the topic of nearly every food, decorating, design, and clothing magazine in existence over the last six months.

The good news is that it does not appear that Philadelphia’s wide variety of farmer’s markets and farmstands are a trend.  Many people have spent years building the network and going through a lot of trouble to make locally grown produce from ethical growers available here in the city and its surrounding areas.  That’s some comfort, at least. 

Clark Park Market report, 1/5

Saturday, January 05, 2008

On this first Saturday of 2008, I made it to the Clark Park farmers’ market for the first time in close to a month.  I was impressed by the continuing availability of apples, cabbage, and kale, among other things, but I was trying to limit my purchases.  I bought carrots, onions, and spicy beef sticks from Landisdale Farm, lentils from Margerum’s, apples (Gold Rush and Northern Gold) from Keystone Farm, and spinach from a farm whose name I didn’t see and forgot to ask (oops!).

I also stopped to consider the very nice looking chicken and chicken products (eggs, sausage [turkey or chicken with pork casing], and quarts of soup) from Mountain View Poultry Farm.  If I’m feeling brave enough in two weeks, when they’ll be back--they alternate between Clark Park and a market in Phoenixville--I think I’ll buy a whole chicken.  (I’m comfortable cooking pieces of chicken, or tofu or seitan, but I’ve yet to do more than watch the cooking of an entire bird.)