Late Bloomers Farm

This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was The Northeast Locavore Feast!! Several of us from the northeast joined forces for a pot luck gathering at my home. The premise was simple: we all bring local dishes, we all eat, we all blog about it! (The original gang of seven was reduced to the gang of five due to some football game and the demands of work. But we forged (foraged?) on.) In attendance:

• Alicia, the Natural Princess and Renato
• Maureen, a local personal chef
• Kaela of Local Kitchen and Kai
• Zoe of Nutmeg Kitchen
• And me, Sophie from Late Bloomers Farm and Cecelia

What a delightful group of people—I think it took us all of 10 seconds to bond! Perhaps our affinity is due to our sharing the same foodshed, eating food that grew in the same soil, and discovering that my farmers are really our farmers. There’s nothing quite like conversation among people who experience similar challenges and celebrate similar victories. Whatever our reason(s) for eating locally: taste, nutrition, food miles, food safety, food security, local pride, or some combination thereof, we found kindred food spirits.

We talked food—recipes, ingredients, vendors, and techniques. We ate. We shared stories of our adventures in finding and obtaining food ingredients. We ate. We discussed the disparities in food laws and lore between NY and CT.  Did I mention we ate?

Lisa Agee of Goatboy Soap found the idea so exciting, she donated party favors: cute little goat-faced soaps.

Our Fabulous Northeast Feast Local Menu

As you’ll see, the dishes ran the gamut. My ingredient sources are listed below. Visit the other sites to see their sources and take on the day.

Appetizers

• Baked potato chips and onion dip
  
• Whole Grain Scottish rolls
  
• Savory Quinoa Cakes
  
• Pickled icebox carrots
• Sankow’s Beaver Brook Pleasant Cow cheese
• Two butters: salted from Wildowsky Dairy (Thank you Kim of Ladies of Levita Road for hooking me up!) and unsalted made from Stone Wall Dairy raw milk

Soup and Salad

• Mixed green salad with squash and apples and an exceptional dressing
  
• Potato leek soup

Main Course

• Roasted root vegetables
  
• Thai winter squash curry
  
• Ricotta gnocchi with pesto
  
• Chicken Scarpariello
  
• Kugel Gratin of greens and potatoes
  

Dessert

• Glazed Berry Tart with sweet ricotta
  
• Chocolate Espresso ice cream from Ferris Acres Creamery

Beverages

• Local beers: Arch Amber from the Hartford Beer Company and Sea Hag IPA from the New England Brewing Company
• Local wines: Cabernet Franc and St. Croix from Sharpe Hill Vineyard, Vista Riposa from McLaughlin Vineyards, and Rochambeau from Heritage Trail Winery
• Yaucono coffee (from Puerto Rico—local when I got it!)

Foodie Bloggers taking pictures of food:

Sophie’s Ingredient Sources:

Chicken Scarpariella

• chicken from Stuarts Family Farm
• chicken stock made with Kandew chicken carcasses
• Seyval Blanc white wine from Miranda Vineyard
• garlic from Holbrook Farm
• hot cherry peppers from Maple Bank Farm
• whole wheat flour from Lightning Tree/Wild Hive Farm
• canola oil from away

Potato Leek Soup

• Cranberry potatoes from Riverbank Farm
• leeks from Newgate Farm
• butter made from Stone Wall Dairy raw milk

I used the cranberry potatoes, thinking the soup would have a sort of Valentine’s look to it. Well, it didn’t. It came out to be an olive drab kind of color. Still tasty, but not pretty.

Well, that was fun. Plans are in the making for a summer feast!

This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was Red Wine Braised Short Ribs and the recipe was locally sourced as well as the food! (The recipe is from Fine Cooking, which is published by Taunton Press, a local business.)

I was faithful to the recipe, substituting ingredients only to favor local, seasonal fare.

• beef short ribs from Laurel Ridge Farm
• bacon fat (instead of oil) from Greyledge Farm bacon
• carrots from Riverbank Farm
• celeriac (instead of celery) from Riverbank Farm
• onions from Wayne’s Organic Garden
• garlic from [Mayer's] Cherry Grove, Newtown, CT
• red wine: Vista Reposa from McLaughlin Vineyards
• chicken stock (instead of beef broth), my own stock made from Andy’s chickens, acquired at Holbrook Farm)
• bay leaf from a NY farm
• salt and black pepper from away

I served it with mashed potatoes:

• potatoes from Maple Bank Farm
• yogurt from Deerfield Farm. The yogurt gives a snappy, tart flavor.

This dish is simple to make. It has a fabulous flavor and the beef seems to melt in your mouth. It’s a comforting winter meal with a special occasion taste.

Since the both the Fairfield Market and City Seed Wooster/New Haven Market were closed yesterday, I didn’t do my usual Saturday forage. Instead, I went up to the “quiet corner” of CT to Sharpe Hill Vineyard in Pomfret. I am quite fond of their Cabernet Franc and my local liquor store ran out. It’s a 92-mile road trip and I didn’t get there on my Passport Wine Trail Tour last year. On the ride, we passed the town of Coventry (of The Coventry Farmers Market fame) and thought hmmm, it’s not that far. So today (Sunday), I foraged at the Coventry Farmers market. What a market! (I hear that the summer market has 50 vendors and had 5000 customers on opening day last year. Wow.)

I scored:

• stew beef from New Boston Beef in N. Grosvenordale, CT
• cheeses from  Cato Corner Farm, Beltane Farm, and Ladies of Levita Road, Lebanon, CT
• celeriac, yellow and red onions, and bok choy from Wayne’s Organic Garden in Oneco, CT
• Can’t Beet It (a beet and horseradish condiment) that they assure me was made from local farmers market produce.
• Peregion and Jacob’s Cattle dried beans, butternut squash, and raspberry jam from Purity Farm in Moosup, CT
  
• cabbage from Highland Thistle Farm in Canturbury, CT
• arugula microgreens from Two Guys from Woodbridge

There were quite a few other vendors there and it was well worth the trip.

From New Morning Natural Foods, I scored these local items:

• beef short ribs from Laurel Ridge Farm
• spinach from Fort Hill Farm
• eggs from Greyledge Farm
• raw milk from both Foxfire and Stone Wall

Not a bad take for a low-market week!

Here’s another dish inspired by my great Puerto Rican vaycay: pumpkin fritters, also called Barriguitas De Viejas. I adapted my recipe from this one and this one.

• 1-3/4 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin. I used the remaining half of the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin squash I used for the Habichuelas. I suspect you can use nearly any winter squash for this recipe.
  
• 1 egg from J&L Eggery in Southbury, CT
• 1-1/4 cup white all purpose flour from Wild Hive Farm/Lightning Tree Farm.
• 3 Tbsp honey from Beardsley Cider Mill & Orchard
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• high heat safflower oil for frying

I followed the recipe that said to drop them by tablespoons into the oil (rather than by teaspoons).

They tasted like french toast! The cinnamon and vanilla flavors were faint and could probably stand to be doubled. I would increase the honey to a 1/4 cup as well. Or I might not use any honey at all, and pour on the maple syrup instead!

This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was Osso Buco over polenta. A few weeks ago, I asked the folks at Sankow’s Beaver Brook if they had veal shanks for Osso Buco and this week, they hooked me up!

Comparing recipes from Mario Batali, Giada De Laurentiis, and Emeril Lagasse, I decided to go with a combination of Mario and Giada’s versions. Emeril’s recipe was the Romagna version, made with red wine and pancetta. Sounds delicious, but not the one I wanted this time. Giada and Mario both had the Milanese version. In blending Mario with Giada, I basically went for easy! I didn’t make Mario’s tomato sauce or Gremalato and I didn’t make Giada’s bouquet garni. I used Mario’s 1:1 wine to stock ratio instead of Giada’s 1:3.

The verdict: OMG!!! Absolutely delicious.

Here’s my ingredient list:

• veal shanks from Sankow’s Beaver Brook, dredged in flour from Wild Hive Farm and Micro Mill
  
• olive oil from Italy (sadly not in my foodshed)
• carrot and celeriac from Riverbank Farm
• onion from Cedar Hill, Newtown, CT
• thyme from Holbrook Farm, dried 2009
• tomatoes from Vaszauskas Farm, Middlebury, CT, canned here in October 2008. I used 1-1/2 cups (not Mario’s tomato sauce and not Giada’s paste)
• chicken stock from my freezer, mostly from Andy’s chickens, acquired at Holbrook Farm.
• Anastasia Blush from DiGrazia Vineyards for the wine. This is not a dry white as specified; it’s a semi-sweet Rose but it was the least sweet local white wine I had on hand. It actually tastes lovely and adds an nice flavor to the dish.

I generally prefer Osso Buco over risotto, but to keep it local, I went with polenta. Good call. I spread the polenta on a sheet, let it cool, cut it into blocks, and pan-fried the blocks. I added butter to the polenta recipe which brings out the flavor of the corn. I believe I could have made a meal of just the polenta smothered with the Osso Buco gravy! The corn meal I used for the polenta was from Wild Hive Farm and Micro Mill. The butter was from away: Vermont Butter and Cheese.

One of the big thrills of Osso Buco is the bone marrow. Spread this on some bread (Wave Hill, preferably) and it’s better’n buttah!

There’s an article up on Slate, Beware the Myth of Grass-Fed Beef that says “Cows raised at pasture are not immune to deadly E. coli bacteria.” The author is taking Nina Planck to task for a piece she wrote for the New York Times several years ago that claimed that the toxic strain of E.coli is “not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of grass, hay and other fibrous forage.”

In fact, a recent study proves that grass-fed cattle are NOT immune to E. coli O157:H7. The author’s beef is that people might not cook their meat properly if the label says grass-fed, which would create a public health hazard. The author has a point.

Frankly, I didn’t “know” that grass-fed cows were supposed to be immune to the toxic strain of E.coli. I thought that E.coli O157:H7 was a function of factory farming: animal overpopulation, cows standing knee-deep in feces, excessive use of antibiotics, and feces and intestinal matter contaminating the carcass at the slaughterhouse.

For awhile there, grass-fed beef was coming from small operations. Obviously, the data analysts failed to correlate conditions with results properly. E.coli O157:H7 wasn’t about diet, but the environment those cows with a grass diet also enjoyed. When the corporate world caught on to a market opportunity, they simply changed the animal’s diet and nothing else. Except one thing; they inject beef with ammonia to kill the bacteria. Yum.

While grass-fed beef is clearly more nutritious than corn-fed, the best advice continues to be to know your farmer and his or her farming practices. And nowadays, learn about your farmer’s slaughterhouse as well.

Please watch Food, Inc.

Wow—it’s been month since my last Saturday forage and the first of the year!

It was great to be back at the Fairfield Winter Market, which is happily back indoors. (Although, truth be told, it was probably warmer outside than inside this week!) I scored:

• carrots, parsnips, and celeriac from Riverbank Farm
• veal shanks (for Osso Bucco) from Sankow’s Beaver Brook
• spinach from Starlight Farms
• Cortland and Macintosh apples provided by Daffodil Hill Growers (from a neighboring farm)
• ricotta salada cheese from Ladies of Levita Road, Lebanon, CT
• beets from Newgate Farms
• Bread from Wave Hill Breads

NOTE: No Fairfield Winter Market next week (1/30). The market will resume on Saturday, February 6, 2010.

Then on to New Morning Natural Foods where I scored these local items:

• raw milk from Stone Wall Dairy
• yogurt from Deerfield Farm

Good to be back in the groove.

This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was inspired by my trip to Puerto Rico. I was surprised to find pumpkin in so many dishes and have since learned that pumpkin grows abundantly there. This dish is called Habichuelas or Stewed Beans (using this recipe), modified for the local challenge.

• olive oil from Italy
• pork chop from Greyledge Farm (Ox Hollow) substituted for the smoked ham
• green bell pepper from Waldingfield Farm (frozen here in August 2008!) (not the right kind of pepper)
• onion from Shenandoah Farms in Easton, CT
• garlic from Cherry Grove, Newtown, CT
• red beans (substituted for pink) from Cayuga Pure Organics
• chicken broth made from Andy’s chickens, from Holbrook Farm
• tomato puree, from Vaszauskas Farm, Middlebury, CT, canned here in October 2008
• dried oregano from Late Bloomers Farm, 2009
• purple potatoes from Late Bloomers Farm, 2009
• 1/2 of the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin squash (pictured below). I’m not sure where I got this squash, having co-mingled my squash collection without thinking to label them, but I am 100% certain it is local.
  

It’s meant to be served with rice, but since rice isn’t local (and I need to mind my middle since literally pigging out on that vacation), I had it as is.

I’m always telling folks to know where their food comes from and to ask their farmers. But what can you do when the farmer lies? Like in this case, both the Food Network and the White House Garden fail the transparency test.

See what happens when hype and political opportunity get out of hand. Perhaps people should stick to getting their food from real farmers. Tip: if there’s no dirt under the finger nails and Jimmy Choo’s on their feet, they’re probably not real farmers.

LoHud has an article rounding up the winter markets going on in Westchester County this year. Westchester is just over the border from CT and well within my 100 miles (in fact, well within 100 miles of all of CT!). Nice Recap.