Jacqueline at Holbrook's

Imagine that: I got genuine fresh Holbrook mustard greens, spinach, and cilantro in January.

They’ve enlisted Jacqueline to manage the place over the winter season.

They have lots of other greens and will have them all winter long. In addition to lots of fresh greens, Holbrook’s carries Stonewall Dairy raw milk, Arethusa pasteurized milk and cheeses, Apple Ridge Farm grass fed beef, and more. Lots more.

I’m particularly grateful since Hurricane Irene and Alfred the October Surprise claimed many of my stored veggies.

Holbrook’s winter hours are 9 AM to 5 PM from Monday to Friday and 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday. They’re closed on Sundays.

Here’s a fast and happy sandwich with melted Arethusa Havarti cheese and Holbrook mustard greens sauteed with garlic and olive oil.

So what’s different from the retail experience? For the most part, the cashiers at the farmers markets ARE the farmers or had some participation in the growing and harvesting of these products. I don’t think many clerks at Walmart worked in China, making the merchandise they ring up for you.

It’s highly likely that the retail shoppers don’t know their producers or the folks staffing the check-out. I don’t get to New Haven often (it’s city driving!) and it was fabulous to catch up with Patrick of Waldingfield, the folks from Stone Gardens Farm, Sankow’s Beaver Brook, and others.

As I’ve said here before, the Thanksgiving holiday is between the grower, the eater, and Provenance. It is very gratifying to thank these folks personally for putting food on my table all year long. And 2011 was an extraordinarily challenging year for us. Between Irene (with a six-day power outage that claimed 2/3 of my food stores), Lee (giving two weeks of on and off rain with no sun or wind), and Alfred (the pre-Halloween snow storm that also brought a six-day power outage), my food stores just weren’t up to their usual peak Autumnal levels.

My Thanksgiving forage took place over several days. In addition to the New Haven Market, Saturday was my day to go to Sport Hill Farm where Patti had several new rows of escarole growing. In fact, Patti has lots of new things growing, safely snuggled under row covers. I also went to New Morning Natural Foods on Saturday to get my milk and yogurt and various other sundries. The place was jamming because it IS a food holiday and they are predominantly a food store. It was great to see a number of produce items from Fort Hill Farm and Riverbank Farm and I scarfed them up. I was glad to get the Woodbury chestnuts, brought by a neighbor with some chestnut trees at this time every year.

On Monday, I set out bright and early for Pleasant Valley, NY to get my turkey from Quattro Game Farm. I was hoping to get one of the heritage breeds like Bourbon Red, but due to my size requirements, I got the broad-breasted white. Still, this baby was pastured and pampered and I love it just the same.

Quattro’s Game Farm is a family farm started by Camilla Quattrociocchi and her mother over 50 years ago. More here. Quattro Game Farm  is related to Migliorelli Farm by marriage—how cool is that! (The Migliorelli’s are from Lazio, Italy which is not far from Tivoli, Italy and their farm in America is in Tivoli, NY—coincidence?)

The Quattro farm store is fabulous! Imagine an Italian specialty import shop crossed with a game farm crossed with a fresh produce farm in an area with even more local growers. Italian locavore mecca! I scored in the bounty department big time!

A little ways up the road, is Clinton Corners, NY, home to Wild Hive Farm Cafe, where we can get locally grown grains, among other things. Don’s cafe is an exceptional example of farm to chef, farm to table, and farm to consumer implementations. I stocked up on my grains and some other goodies available in this area.

Finally, no Thanksgiving forage would be complete without a stop at Holbrook Farm in Bethel, CT where John and Lynn (and friends) have been keeping it going for 34 years. John is a community resource. With his famous Rolodex, he pointed me in many good food directions over the years. In fact, it was John who introduced me to Quattro Farm and encouraged me to make the trip because he was certain I would love it. He was right!

Holbrook’s has also been busy with late season planting in an array of hoop houses. He’s brought on Jaqueline as the winter farm manager and expects to be able to provide fresh greens for several months through the winter.

Though I’ve said it many times before, I think it’s okay to be redundant in this regard: To all my farmers and farmers helpers, Thank You.

Happy Thanksgiving!

• 1 bag of red potatoes
• 1 bunch of baby beets and with tops
• 1 acorn squash
• 3 bell peppers
• 1 bag of lettuce mix (Boston Bibb and Mizuna)
• 1 watermelon
• 1 bag of green beans
• 2 tomatoes

The last watermelon. Sigh.

Quite a respectable yield, considering the weather we’ve been having. The remaining weeks likely will reflect the impact that excessive rain, along with very little sun or wind can have on plants. Already Patti tells us the broccoli was a casualty. This is the fun of a CSA—chancing it along with the farmer. You never know what’s going to happen. Even with all the damage that weather’s done to our food stores and crops, we’ve fared better here than some of those in other parts of the country. All in all, we’ve done pretty well for ourselves this year.

Further on in my Saturday forage I scored a Maitake mushroom! Local mushrooms are pretty scarce in these parts, with the majority of growers dealing directly with restaurants. But I was lucky enough to be shopping at Holbrook Farm while their mycologist was paying a call!

The perfect dinner to celebrate the Maitakes:

• Maitake from Holbrook Farm
• pan-seared beef tenderloin from Stuarts Family Farm
• kale, sauteed with garlic, both from Sport Hill Farm
• purple potatoes from Riverbank Farm

Yummm…

• 1 bag of lettuce mix: lettuce, lemon basil, and arugula
• 4-5 zucchini (plus big ones for free!)
• 1 bunch of haruki turnips
• 1 bunch of scallions
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard
• 1 bag of golden beets
• choice of a bunch of collards or kale
• bonus: bunch of radishes from Long Island, NY

Hooray–more zucchini! I can hardly wait to see how creative Google can make me.

Haruki turnips can be eaten raw or cooked. I tried one raw and it was quite nice—a little like a radish, but not the heat.

Kendall taking time to smell the sunflowers

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Sport Hill Farm garlic drying

The Maple Bank Farm folks are definitely the ringleaders of the jocularity.

Notice Jenny's bling: a real garlic scape.

Daffodil Hill Growers grew the first hot peppers I’ve seen at the markets this season (thanks to a mislabeled seed packet).

These have a nice heat zing, even without the seeds.

Don Taylor Farms of Danbury brought the first sweet corn of the season, grown in Windsor, CT.

You had to go to the Maple Bank Farm stand to get these beauties.

For those not acquainted with the seasonal treat known as squash blossoms, just dip the flowers in a little batter and pan-fry in some olive oil until golden brown.

And after a hard day of grocery shopping/foraging, time to kick back and enjoy.

Not local, not real, but definitely real local fun.

The Woodbury SummerFest concert, with the Cast of Beatlemania and the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra, was held outdoors at Hollow Park in Woodbury, CT.

For the picnic dinner, I brought egg salad made from Woodbury Laid Eggs, a baguette from Ovens of France, an assortment of Cato Corner Farm cheeses, North Fork potato chips (fromArtisan Made, Northeast), and Sharpe Hill‘s Cabernet Franc wine.

I broke for bread

With the temperature being an unseasonably mild 54° here in the northeast, it was a beautiful day to make my periodic pilgrimage to Wild Hive country.

The place was packed—a great sign! And speaking of great signs, I love theirs.

I left with a LOT of flour and corn meal (and Ronnybrook butter and Cayuga Pure Organics beans and NY state cheese). But mostly flour. I couldn’t imagine a better way to start off the new year.

• arugula
• spinach
• a lovely potted lavender plant

The new barn at Sport Hill is really coming along. It is beautiful. Sorry, no photo since this was an impromptu visit! Next time.

Cecelia is up for a weekend of wine trailing for the 2010 Passport contest, so we planned on an abbreviated Saturday forage.

Serendipitous score: at the Newtown Deli, there’s a (newish) fresh meat market called Butcher’s Best Market. Their lamb and pork are from local farms. I scored

• lamb chops from Sepe Farm, Sandy Hook, CT
• a container of lard, made from Rowland Farm hogs

At the New Milford Farmers Market (on the green, Saturdays from 9 AM to noon), I scored:

• patchouli soap from Goatboy Soap (for my eternal collection)
• cilantro and spring garlic from Riverbank Farm
• bacon from Grayledge Farm (thanks to Riverbank Farm)
• and had a couple of apple cider donuts from Averill Farm

Lots of folks at this market were selling seedling starts for the garden.

At the Hopkins Vineyard Barrel Tasting (more on that in another post), I scored

• Womanchego cheese from Cato Corner Farm and Asiago chese Cherry Grove Farm, Lawrenceville, NJ and goat milk Feta from Beltane Farm, all provided by Artisan Made, Northeast of Southbury.
• Raspberry Peach jam from Twin Pines Farm, Thomaston, CT

At Chapel Hill Farm in Sherman, I scored blueberry and peach jam.

At Bluestone Farm, I scored

• Cavolo Nero starts (Tuscan Kale)
• Maple syrup (2010)

And at New Morning Natural Foods, I scored:

• Stone Wall Dairy raw milk
• Deerfield Farm yogurt

And that was it!

Holbrook Farm, where I scored:

• spinach
• arugula
• mustard greens
• ramps
• cilantro
• greenhouse tomatoes from March Farm
• Kenyon‘s Rhode Island sea salt (Yay! It’s back!)
• Holbrook’s own bread and butter pickles
• Beltane Farm Goat milk
• Womanchego cheese from Cato Corner Farm
• Roma tomato starts

Then on to Opening Day at the New Milford Farmers Market. I arrived at the new Milford green at 12:20 PM but the market runs from 9-12. I’ll say this, they sure clean up well after themselves because there wasn’t a trace when I got there! I’ll just need to get started earlier next week.

Then on to Maple Bank Farm, where I scored:

• something that looks like long radishes from Riverbank Farm
• bok choy from Riverbank Farm
• bacon from Greyledge Farm
• organic potting soil from McEnroe in Millerton, NY

And winding up at New Morning Natural Foods, where I picked up these local items:

• arugula from Riverbank Farm
• raw milk from Stone Wall Dairy
• yogurt from Deerfield Farm
• Woodbury Farm eggs
• San Marzano tomato starts from Fort Hill Farm

And then to Rich Farm for a treat!

At Holbrook’s, a cheese tasting was in-progress. They’re carrying a larger selection of cheeses, including Cato Corner, Beltane, and Sprout Creek Farm from local sources, and the tasting was an opportunity to introduce their customers to these new offerings.

I scored:

• a couple of bunches of ramps (HT to Kaela—check out her post learn all about ramps)
• a big bag of loose spinach (obviously in need of morels)
• a big bag of mixed greens, mostly arugula, with a pick-my-own private lesson from John (who shied out of a video). Picking greens with John is more than an educational experience: Here, taste this. Now this. Whaddya think of that? Ever taste anything like that?! No charge for all the greens I consumed while picking!
• cheese: Womanchego and Vivace Bambino from Cato Corner and Ourey and Doe Re Me from Sprout Creek Farm

By the way, Holbrook’s is back to their regular season hours: 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Saturday.

Then on to New Morning where I scored:

• Stone Wall Dairy raw milk
• Deerfield yogurt

I missed the fiddleheads, but am now on a call list!

Then it was off to Rich Farm with the kids for the first ice cream of the season.

Today’s forage began at Redding Roasters for some peaberry and espresso beans. No, the coffee’s not local, but it is very locally roasted and as fair trade and organic as Bill can find.

Then on to Holbrook Farm where I scored spinach and red leaf lettuce.

Then on to the Fairfield Winter Market (seems weird to say that when the temperature was in the 80s!). The vendors were all outside. I scored:

• Nehantic Abby cheese from Sankow’s Beaver Brook
• Wasabi chive cheese spread from Ladies of Levita Road, Lebanon, CT
• garlic and sweet potatoes from Newgate Farms
• carola and red gold potatoes and carrots from Riverbank Farm
• stew beef and bacon from Eagle Wood Farms
• and yet a few more McIntosh apples from Daffodil Hill Growers

New Morning Natural Foods has my milk and yogurt put aside (they’re nice that way) since I’ll be over in their neck of the woods tomorrow. Might as well save some food miles.