Category Archives: Connecticut

Connecticut, CSA, farms, markets, organic

Our CSA!

Our CSA did start this week! Today!

Our CSA is with Waldingfield Farm in Washington, CT. Our pick-up point is the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market at St. John’s Episcopal Church, on Washington Ave in Sandy Hook (co-inciding with the Farmer’s Market here on Tuesdays from 2-6 PM).

This week we got greens; lots of greens. We got Bibb lettuce, red lettuce, mixed salad greens, mustard greens, Swiss chard, and Chinese greens that I don’t know the name of. Lots of greens. A very impressive first for us. We also bought some of Waldingfield’s own salad dressing.

So tonight we had salad! We mixed the Bibb lettuce, red lettuce, mixed salad greens. We used the radishes, fennel, and carrots from the organic market as toppings. We also chopped the garlic scapes and cut some strawberries (from Holbrook’s) for more toppings. For the protein, we crumbled some cheese we had from Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm. And we used Waldingfield’s own salad dressing. A very delicious meal.

Thank you Daniel, Patrick, and Quincy!

Connecticut, farms, foraging, locavore

My Local Farmer’s Markets

There are lots of farmer’s markets in the region. These are just the very local markets that I’ll be frequenting regularly. Here’s a complete listing of CT Farmer’s Markets from the Hartford Courant.

Brewster Farmers’ Market
– Wednesday & Saturday, June 18 – November 22, 9 AM–2 PM

Wholesome Wave (Westport Farmer’s Market)
– Thursdays, June – October 23, 10 AM-2 PM, Westport Country Playhouse
– Sundays, June 29 – October, 10 AM-2 PM, Theatre Company

Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market
– Tuesdays, June 24 – October 14, 2-6 PM

Sandy Hook Village Farmers’ Market
– Sundays, June 1 – October 12, 9AM-2 PM

Bethel Farmers’ Market
– Saturdays, July 12 – November 1, 9 AM-1 PM

Connecticut, locavore, raw milk

Back

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted and I do apologize. My calendar got taken over by aliens and I’ve just wrested it back.

Yes, I’m still eating local. My milk, eggs, and beef are exclusively local and my cheese and other meats mostly are. My grains never were. (Yes, I’m still on that.) My vegetables are not–we’ve exhausted our put-by freezer supply. We joined a CSA this year, which will be starting soon, so fresh veggies are on the way. Hallelujah!

Among other things, we’ve been planting and tending our gardens. I’ll be posting on that soon (with pictures, even).

While I was out, I attended a reteat at Trinity Conference Center, in West Cornwall, CT. The space is lovely and the weekend was good, but the food was fabulous. Chef Corey prepares exquisite items and several selections at each meal. I had an opportunity to meet him and we ended up having a long discussion about raw milk. (No, they don’t serve or have raw milk at the Conference Center because it is against the law to serve it. In the nearby vicinity there are at least three dairy farms selling raw milk, which is perfectly legal.) Anyway, the best news is that several of these dishes were made using local, in-season ingredients. We had fiddleheads and ramps! Chef Corey showed me his map with a 120 mile circle radiating from West Cornwall. His goal is to source as much as possible from this foodshed.

If you ever have an opportunity to attend an event at the Trinity Conference Center, take it–at least for the food.

Connecticut

Blight Resistant Chestnut

Back at the turn of the century (the previous one, not the recent one), up to four billion American Chestnut tree were killed in a blight. The linked article is a good read, after which, you might wonder, well how far have we progressed in developing a blight-resistant American Chestnut? According to this article at newsday.com:

Now, Guilford’s Conservation Commission, along with the Connecticut Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, is working to establish a blight-resistant chestnut tree in a 1 1/2-acre orchard in the town’s Nut Plains Park.

Their test orchard (last year) worked out and now they’re planting in earnest this year!

I have gotten local chestnuts from Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown. These may have been Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant.