Produce

Local Food 6/9/2012

This was a great week at the market!  We have a new vendor that’s certified organic!  (The certification process is challenging and expensive, so many farms aren’t certified organic even if they do use organic methods.) 

From the new farmer, we picked up a beautiful bunch of basil and some salad mix with flowers.  Elsewhere, I got broccoli, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, red raspberries, swiss chard, onions, and zucchini. 

I also picked up more tomatoes (!!), black raspberries, beets, radishes, and another hunk of cheese.

Local Food 6/2/2012

I missed the market for a few weeks while I was in Norway.  I think Art went at least once, but he didn’t take any pictures.     The first week I was back yielded quite a bounty, though!

I picked up a cabbage, beef jerky, pattypan squash, strawberry chocolate spread, tomatoes (!!), red leaf lettuce, beets, onions, salad mix, and eggs.  Lots of deliciousness here.

Local Food 6/16/2012

It’s possible that I went a little overboard this week at the market.  I blame Art for staying home so he wasn’t there to keep me in check! 

I picked up cucumbers, swiss chard, shortbread cookies, yellow zucchini, Bermuda green onions, and some sleepytime tea. 

Then I got a bag of salad, pattypan squash, new potatoes, flat leaf parsley, little teeny peaches, tomato seconds, more onions, and some more swiss chard. 

Since that finishes my market catch up, it’s now time to plan meals for the week with all of this delicious veg!

Local Food 5/5/2012

I have promised myself that I will catch up on some of my backlog today, starting with local food posts.  Our farmers market opened on May 5th, and I’ve been every week that I’ve been home! 

Our first week started with a remarkable amount of green.  Asparagus, radishes, broccoli, swiss chard, green onions (that are red), cucumbers, and salad mix. 

If you’re reading this and live in the area, you should stop by the farmers market!  It’s over by the new library building near O’Donnell Lake on Saturdays from 8am-1pm.

Local Food 5/12/2012

The second week at the market was also lovely!  

We had a bread vendor who, sadly, hasn’t been back since.  We picked up cookies and two loaves of bread from her.  We’ve also got a cheese vendor!  They’re with a pilot program with the state to sell locally produced raw milk cheese – this is super exciting and we picked up some delicious aged cheddar. 

We also got more asparagus (I miss it already), beef jerky, broccoli, basil, strawberries, and some sort of green in a bag that I can’t identify.  I’m also not sure what the plant in front is, cucumber or squash perhaps?

The Lamb – January 2012

We ordered our lamb back when we ordered our last half cow and half pig, but Zekiah ended up needing to find a new lamb processor, so it took a bit longer for our lamb to arrive.  This ended up being a good thing, because it gave us time to clear out some of the cow and pig to ensure we’d have room for the lamb! 

Art went to pick it up without me because he had some business-type stuff to discuss and I was busy cooking a triple batch of Tetrazzini.  

We ended up with two boxes of meat.  This first picture shows four boneless leg roasts and some loin roasts.  Some of the roasts are stacked by type, so you can’t see each individual one. 

Here there are loin roasts, rib roasts, and arm roasts.  (I suppose that arm roasts are also known as shoulder roasts.) 

More arm roasts and one and a half pounds of ground lamb.  I think that I was expecting we’d get more ground lamb, but I should have known better since I did pick all the cuts.  This is the one challenging thing with bulk meat – cuts and ground meat are mutually exclusive!  I’ll get in touch with the farm at some point and see about getting some more ground lamb either in the future or if they happen to have it in their stocks now. 

I’m very pleased and excited about getting to cook all of this great meat!  I’ve never had so much lamb or access to all of these cuts before.  So neat!

My cooking goal for 2012 is to stay on top of using meat from the freezers.  I really should try to stick to no more than one fish meal and two chicken meals each week so that I’ll use lamb, pig, and cow for the other four meals of each week.

Local Food 11/19/2011

And it’s time to say farewell to the market after another great year.  The last market day of the season is always a bit sad. 

It’s also a bit sparse; we did have a whole lot of options of things to pick up this week.  Although, now that it’s too late, I’m wondering why I never bought more winter squash while I had the chance!  We did pick up some green onions, chocolate bread, pumpkin bread, pumpkin butter, and black walnuts!  I’m pretty excited about the black walnuts even though I have no idea what I’m going to do with them.

Local Food 11/12/2011

Second to last week of the market!

I’m actually surprised at how many delicious things I was able to pick up this late in the season. 

Cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin nut bread, green onions, and mustard greens.  Yum!

Local Food 11/5/2011

So few weeks left!  This means I feel tempted to buy more and more because it’s my last chance! 

I picked up some exciting greens this week – tatsoi, choi, and a bag of mixed greens.  I also got a jar of creamed honey and a bottle of normal honey as gifts. 

And lots of tomatoes.  Little tomatoes, big tomatoes, and green tomatoes.  Woo!

Then there’s the ubiquitous bag of potatoes.  Yum.

Local Food 10/29/2011

This was a very light week at the market since Art went without me due to the weather and my being under said weather! 

He picked up tomatoes (!), a nice bag of lettuce which is deceptively large, and some sweet potatoes.  Each new week that still brings tomatoes is a surprise.