Category Archives: farms

farms, foraging, locavore, resources

Searching for Food

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We live in interesting times. Neither hunter nor gatherer in the traditional sense, yet both in a contemporary sense. Armed with Google, a GPS device, or both, we can track and find much of what is locally available.

Here is my current list of places to find out where to find local food:
– Eat Well Guide. Search for local foods by entering a zip code and mileage.
– Connecticut Farm Map. Intended to be the online companion to the paper map.
– BuyCTGrown. Search by item, zip code, and mileage.
– Eat Wild. Find grass-fed food.
– CT Northeast Organic Farming Association Farms. Includes Farmer’s Market information.
– DOAG Diversified Dairy Farms in Connecticut.
– Local Harvest.
– Pick Your Own.
– CT Farm Fresh. Farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area. Includes a catalog for items you cannot find locally.
– Connecticut Wine Trail.
– Edible Nutmeg. A quarterly newsletter that celebrates the harvest of the Nutmeg state. Publication includes directories.
– City Seed Farmer’s Markets.
– Farm & Food. A New York Resource. (A significant portion of my foodshed lies in NY.)

farms, foraging

Saturday’s Forage

I have to say, being a grasshopper locavore–one who did not spend the summer storing up for the winter–causes one to take some pretty desperate measures, like going to an outdoor Farmer’s Market in the middle of the winter in search of sustenance. (Okay, it’s technically not winter yet, but it’s cold and white out there!)

This Saturday (12/15), we followed up on a lead to City Seed‘s Holiday Market at Wooster Square in New Haven (map). City Seed’s criteria for vendors are:
1. All farm products sold at the market must be grown in Connecticut.
2. City Farmers’ Markets are “Producer Only” markets at which farmers sell what they grow and other vendors sell what they themselves have produced.
Works for me!

I regret to say that I did not take notes about which vendors came out on Saturday. In my defense, it was pretty darn cold and I wasn’t interested in taking off my gloves, except to pay or sample cheeses! City Seed has a Web page listing of their usual Wooster Square vendors. Most of them were there on Saturday, which was rather impressive because, like I said, it was pretty darn cold. For this grasshopper locavore, it was well worth the 32-mile trip. City Seed maintains a Web page with the schedule for their Year-Round markets. The next market dates are: Jan 19, Feb 16, Mar 15, Apr 19 — 10AM – 1PM.

I came home with:
– Artisinal cheeses from Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme, CT.
– Chevre from Belthane Farm in Lebanon, CT.
– Fresh yogurt from Trinity Dairy Farm in Ensfield, CT
– Organic kale, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, carrots, and potatoes from Waldingfield Farm in Washington, CT.
– Salad greens. (Deep apologies, but I can’t recall the farm name.)

I am delighted that I can continue eating local, sustainable food throughout the winter. I cannot express enough gratitude to these farmers who left the warm comfort of their homes to feed me (and others like me) good and healthy food.

And as an added bonus, Wooster Street is the Little Italy of New Haven, CT! It is home to the original Pepe’s Pizzeria, the legendary Sally’s Apizza, and a host of other restaurants.

farms

Working the Land

I came across the Working the Land Web site which is a site devoted to Connecticut farm land and a documentary about the same.

The site describes it as: “Working the Land, a new documentary from SimonPure Productions, tells the compelling story of state agriculture – from its earliest history to its present-day diversity. The program also explores trends affecting farming in the state and the public policy that shapes its future. Along the way, we visit many picturesque state farms and meet the farmers who work the land and waters of Connecticut.”

I ordered the Working the Land video on DVD and watched it. It’s an interesting and well-made documentary, narrated by Sam Waterston. I learned quite a few things and I’d recommend this video to anyone with even a remote interest in Connecticut farming.

Since becoming a local foodie, I’ve been researching farms in my spare time, trying to replace my old, worldly pantry with a new, sustainable pantry. I have lists: lists of farms I’ve visited, lists of farms I intend to visit, and lists of farms that feed me that I’ve never visited (Farmer’s Market and Natural food stores vendors). Much of the video featured farmers talking about their farms. I had to laugh at myself–whenever there was a farmer from one of my lists, I was cheering at the screen: that’s one of my farms!

farms, foraging

Saturday’s Forage

Today (12/8) took us to Rich Farm in Oxford, CT for raw milk, New Morning Natural Foods for various sundries, including Murray’s Chicken, and Waldingfield Farm in Washington, CT.

Murray’s chickens are local to Pennsylvania. They are humanely raised by a number of family farms in PA. They are not given growth hormones or antibiotics. They guarantee that all of their retailers are within 300 miles of their farms. Okay, so not 100 miles for me, more like 200, but given the issues with getting chickens in CT (regulations), this is as good as it is for now. I’m not giving up, but Murray’s is not Perdue either.

The drive to Waldingfield Farm was lovely…from Oxford, through Southbury and Woodbury…looked like a postcard from Connecticut. I met Patrick Horan (one of three brothers running the farm) last week at the Sandy Hook Holiday Farmer’s Market. He had lots of jars of his pasta sauce. The organic tomatoes are from his farm, the basil, onions, and garlic are from friends (in CT), and the olive oil is of course, from the world.

I am Italian (4th generation American, but still full-blooded Italian) and I generally do not eat pasta sauces that are not made by blood relatives. It’s not snobbery per se; let’s just say that my expectations have been well managed over the years. But seeings how I am in the dark days of winter and did not spend many of the light days of summer “putting by” the local bounty, Patrick’s sauce, if it worked out, could be a life saver.

Well, it worked out. It is a delightfully delicious marinara. I’m jealous because it takes me longer to make one pot of marinara than it took him to make 5000 jars. The recipe is Waldingfield’s and is produced at Palmieri’s in New Haven, CT. According to Patrick, it’s “one of the last old school Italian tomato processing facilities around.”

This pasta sauce is good, real good. It has a good flavor. So I went to his farm in search of more.

I met his parents and his brother Quincy, the full time farmer. It turns out that the farm first belonged to their mother’s grandfather and has been in the family ever since. I met the dogs too, although I forget their names (because I’m a cat person). But they were good dogs.

Anyway, I left with a case of pasta sauce and very happy.

By the way, those who know me are probably flipping out that I’m calling this “pasta sauce.” Well, that’s what the Waldingfield folks are calling it. And it is a marinara (meatless), so the name “sauce” applies. The meat-based, red tomato, divine-simmered-all-day-Sunday stuff is still gravy in my vocabulary. No meat = sauce. Meat (pork & beef) = gravy.