This week's Food (10/30/08)

This week we probably will have:

From the LaPlata Farmer's Market...
The following are conventionally grown
* apples - small or large (sweet or sour)@ $2/5 apples
* pears (asian and others) @ $2/5 pears
* small onions (yellow or red) @ $1/5 onions
* carrots @ $1/bag (bags contain about

From Good Fortune Farm ...
* certified organic, free range X-Large eggs @ $4/dz

From Fresh Start Farm ...
* free range, organically fed medium eggs @ $2/dz

From Estevez Family Farm ...
* organically grown kale (Blue Scotch Curled) @ $1.50/bunch

From Next Step Produce ...
The following are all certified organic
* acorn squash @ $2.50/lb
* sweet potatoes @ $2/lb
* garlic (regular or elephant) @ $8.50/lb
* ginger root (young) @ 15/lb
* blue potatoes (small @ $5/qt)
* carola potatoes (large @ $2.50/lb or small @ $5/qt)
* radish bunch (french breakfast, pink beauty, cherry bell) @ $2.50
* turnips bunch (hakurei) @ $3
* beets (small with lots of greens) bunch @ $3
* leeks @ $3.60/lb
* fennel @ $4/lb
* kohlrabi bunch @ $3
* Asian Greens (mei quing choi, pac choi, tat soi) @ $2.50/lb
* napa cabbage @ $2/lb
* celery bunch (smaller and less watery) @ $3
* collard greens bunch @ $3
* kale bunch (red russian, red bor, curly, or lacinato) @ $3
* mustard greens bunch (green wave or mizuna) @ $3
* rapini bunch @ $3
* vitamin green bunch @ $3
* mustard greens bunch (mizuna, arugula, green wave) @ $3
* swiss chard bunch (white or rainbow) @ $3
* dandelion bunch (red or green) @ $3
* boston lettuce head @ $2.50
* crisp lettuce head (lite @ $2 or dark @ $2.50)
* romaine lettuce head @ $3
* spinach bag @ $3
* mesclun mix (baby lettuce mixed with bay greens + baby arugula) bag @ $3
* baby arugula bag @ $3
* parsley bunch @ $2.50
* yardlong beans bunch @ $3 (last call till next year)
* pole beans bunch @ $3 (last call till next year)
* green bell peppers @ $2.60/lb (last call till next year)

Please remember that between nature and labor, sometimes not everything on the list is actually harvested according to plan.

Free Range Local Pork Available

Wow, I just visited Lance Estevez's farm in Port Tobacco for the first time. He grows animals and vegetables in a humane, sustainable way. He is currently raising pigs (female), chickens, and turkeys. The fenced enclosures for each type of animal move to new ground frequently. They are fed conventional grain with absolutely no added hormones, antibiotics, or anything else. Baby pigs are fed a mineral-rich pig feed until they are able to sustain themselves on grain and foraging. The love rooting around in the fallow corn fields and woods. The egg laying hens have one rooster to keep them happy and a regular visiting rooster from a neighboring farm. Next year, he will be trying out some different chicken breeds. Next year he will be starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program for vegetables and possibly eggs if he gets around 10 people interested.

So if you are interested in local, antibiotic and hormone free, humanely grown pork, there are about 5-6 pigs available. If you want to split a pig, just let me know. The price is $3/lb of cut and wrapped pork. A half pig contains typically 60-80 lbs of meat. This is a complete price with no extra charges. Lance humanely kills the pigs and there are two options for getting the meat prepared depending on whether you want sausage seasoned and other such details. Interested? Contact me and I'll pass on his email address to you (and please tell him I gave you his name!).

Egg Weights and prices

Ever wondered why free range, organic eggs can be as much as $4 a dozen? Organic chicken feed is more expensive than conventional feed, but not a huge difference. And you want the free range chickens to eat plenty of bugs so the eggs are chock full of nutrients for you and bright yellow yolks as well. I find that the main price difference has to do with size.

All eggs sold in the state of Maryland must be sold by the following weight classes as specified by USDA standards (The minimum weight of each class increases by 3 oz more than the one smaller than it):

EGG WEIGHTS
SIZE OZ/DOZ
Small 18
Medium 21
Large 24
Extra Large 27
Jumbo 30

I recently purchased jumbo size eggs for baking from farmer #1. They were $4 a dozen. So that is $0.33 per egg or $0.13 per ounce of egg.

In the spring, from farmer #2, I purchased small eggs at $2 a dozen. That is $0.17 per egg and $0.11 per ounce of egg.

So the jumbo and small eggs are about the same price per ounce of egg which is what I care about when baking. When we are eating just eggs or omlettes, I use fewer jumbos than smalls and so they actually last us longer. Funny how things work out with math :-)

Lacinato Kale

Ok, so you just bought kale.

Lacinato kale actually. Now what?

Storage
Notice that the kale came wet and wrapped in wet newspaper. I store my kale wrapped in the wet newspaper and in the crisper/vege drawer of the refrigerator.

Cleaning
I have watched greens being washed at the farms when I visit and so I choose not to wash most greens again at home. Sometimes I will look at it and decide that it needs washed again, or will select out the leaves that I want to wash. Fill a clean sink or large bowl with old water, add the leaves, swish, let the mixture settle so the dirt falls down, then remove leaves.

Eating

1) The most useful for me is to chop it into tiny pieces using my food processor, put the kale into a zip top style bag, and throw it in the freezer. Then I can take out a small amount (like 2 Tablespoons) and add to pasta sauce, egg salad, tuna salad, pizza toppings, omelettes, or other foods. The lacinato kale is added to these foods without cooking or doing anything to it first.

2) Lacinato kale makes a good salad too. I prefer a creamy type of dressing with this green along with some sweet things like red pepper, carrots, apples, raisins, or cherry tomatoes. Since kale is a cold weather vege and tomatoes and peppers are warm weather, thereis little overlap. Mostly I go with the apples, carrots, raisins, oh! and dried cranberries.

3) Kale can also be sliced made into a nice pasta topping. After removing the thick portion of the stems, make a tall stack of kale leaves. Roll them up into a cylinder then slice thin to make kale ribbons. Slice and saute a small onion in some butter or oil, add garlic if you wish and brown, then add kale ribbons and cook till just turning bright green. Keep tasting the kale. It will get sweeter when it is done and bitter and yucky when over done.

Need more info on kale? Just let me know with a comment or email. Otherwise, enjoy!

This week's Food (10/23/08)

This week we have:

From the LaPlata Farmer's Market...
* apples - small or large (gala, fuji, mitsui, red delicious)@ $2/5 apples
* pears (asian and others) @ $2/5 pears

From Good Fortune Farm ...
* organic, free range X-Large eggs @ $4/dz

From Next Step Produce ...
The following are all organic
* garlic (music variety) @ $8.50/lb
* ginger root (young) @ 15/lb
* blue potatoes (large @ $2.50/lb or small @ $5/qt)
* carola potatoes (large @ $2.50/lb or small @ $5/qt)
* radish bunch (french breakfast, pink beauty, chery bell) @ $3
* beets (small with lots of greens) bunch @ $3
* leeks @ $3.60/lb
* fennel @ $5/lb
* kohlrabi bunch @ $3
* Asian Greens (mei quing choi, tat soi, and napa) @ $3/lb
* cardoon bunch @ $3
* celery bunch (smaller and less watery) @ $3
* collard greens bunch @ $3
* kale bunch (red russian, curly, or lacinato) @ $3
* mustard greens bunch (green wave or mizuna) @ $3
* swiss chard bunch (red, yellow, or rainbow) @ $3
* dandelion bunch (red or green) @ $3
* boston lettuce head @ $2.50
* crisp lettuce head (lite or dark) @ $3
* romaine lettuce head @ $3.50
* mesclun mix bag @ $3
* arugula bag @ $3
* parsley bunch @ $2.50