Greetings from the farm. After a few snowy weeks, life seems to be returning to normal. I managed to make it through the snow without too much difficulty. My biggest problem occurred this past Tuesday. I had to get my donuts for Shrove Tuesday. I like the ones made by the bakery in Jefferson. I took the back roads on my way over the mountain. I had heard that Townsend Road had a 17 foot drift, so that is how I went. I didn't see anything near that big, but a loader and backhoe were removing snow from the road. To avoid this wait on the trip home, I left Jefferson by way of Old Middletown Road, thinking this was a major link between the two towns and would be no problem. After passing Bussard Road, only one lane was open. As I crested the hill, I was hoping no one was coming the opposite direction. But there was a large stake body truck coming the other way. And he could not make it up the hill. The truck started backing down the hill, only to back into a snow bank. Here he sat, unable to go forward or backward. The snow was 4 to 5 feet higher than my truck on both sides. 8 to 10 inches was on the road. Snow was blowing so much we could not see 100 feet in front of us. A call was placed to 911 asking for a county plow. We would shovel the snow from behind the wheels and try to get him going. Two of us helped by pushing. We would get the truck going, but it kept sliding deeper into the drift. Finally the plow arrived, but from the wrong direction, even though the caller told them to come from the Middletown end. After circling around the other way, they hooked a chain to the stuck truck and pulled it out. The driver then had to back up for nearly a mile to the nearest intersection. Two hours later, I was on my way home. The donuts did smell good, but I waited until getting home to try one. I guess it was because of the problems getting home, but they just didn't taste as good to me this year. Hopefully next year the roads will be clear when I go for my kinklings. Then I'm sure they will taste as good as I remember.
I will be returning to Dutch Plant farm this Saturday, February 20, from 10 AM until 12:30 PM. Pork will be frozen. I will have loin roasts, butts, ribs, pork chops, smoked ham steaks, bacon, and all flavors of sausage(country, hot Italian, mild Italian, applewurst, bratwurst, maple, and sage). Beef and lamb will be mostly fresh. Lamb will include butterflied legs, loin chops, arm chops, cubes, boneless shoulders, and ground. Beef will include strip, ribeye, flank, skirt, and sirloin steaks; boneless chuck, sirloin tip, and eye round roasts; stew cubes, and ground round. I will also have whole and cutup chickens, and legs/thighs. I will also have eggs and cheese. Saturday sounds like a heatwave is coming, with temperature over 40. Hopefully you will be ready for some locally grown meats and be able to make it to the market. Eat fresh, be well, and I'll see you there.
Danny
Rohrer's Meats
301-432-8350
Dakarohfarm@aol.com
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Rohrer's Meats: Stuck in a Drift
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Summer Creek Farm - Storm Update
Hi All! I hope you all weathered the storm well. It certainly was tough up here on the farm. On the farmer and livestock as well as our infrastructure. You can look at our photo album on Facebook to see pictures from the storm. If you are not a fan of Summer Creek Farm on Facebook please join us! Rick Hood's page on Facebook is where the farm information is located.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Everything (food) must go at Volt
Didn't mean to scare you. I got this email from Hilda Staples of Volt and wanted to pass it in. This storm is CRAZY:
Hey there snow bound food lovers!Whatever it is that Bryan hunted, I want to eat.
We have had all of our food delivery trucks cancel deliveries. So Chef Voltaggio is in the house cooking until we run out of everything! And you know we don't freeze anything, so this week has been a huge challenge to say the least. I saw Bryan butchering this afternoon so I think he must have been out hunting and killing this morning. I kid I kid.
Anyway, we are running a "Snow Fixe" menu - $35.00 for three course dinner menu tonight only. Also, since there is a problem with on street parking, our parking lot is free and clear of all snow. Lot is open for dinner guests only.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Potatoes
This time of year, obviously the pickings for local food are slim unless you are talking about meat or preserves. Nevertheless, I was able to get some potatoes from my friend Chad the other day that he had grown this summer, and I fried them up. Chad is expanding his Community Supported Agriculture program this summer to 50 spots. He is going to be primarily doing CSA through his farm off Mt. Zion road this year. If you are interested to learn more about his CSA, you can contact him at stullproduce@yahoo.com. He farms organic.
I saw an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain the other day about Brittany, in France. It was the best episode of the show I had ever seen, and that's saying a lot. The reason I loved this particular show, other than the fact that it had the best looking food on it that I had ever seen, was the relentless emphasis on quality of experience in life through being grounded in local products. Lucky for Brittany, local food includes every form of seafood known to humankind. But beyond that, the appreciation for the soil, for rusticness, for truly fresh ingredients that can only come from local sources- this episode totally blew me away. Because for me, local food is about quality of life more than anything else. As much as I might like to talk about the politics of it or the economics. It does seem though, that when you are doing the right thing, there are many, many reasons for it, not just one.
Yeon and I are making some changes to the West Frederick Farmer's Market page that I think will be really cool. We're linking the feed from this blog to it, for one. We'll let you know when we're done. And when I say we, it's Yeon doing all of the coding.
The West Frederick Farmer's Market still doesn't have a home yet. I'll be talking to some other people on the marketing committee here soon to step up efforts. We'll make it work.
Are we really going to get another 20 inches of snow in the next two days? Geez. I am going to go through my vegetable seeds just so I can dream about spring. And figure out what to order. This year I want to grow watermelon radishes.
Shannon
Friday, February 5, 2010
Market Closed for Snow
With the weather forecast being what it is, plus I have pneumonia, I will not be coming to Frederick this Saturday. If I get enough requests, I will reschedule for another day. Otherwise I will return to Frederick on Saturday February 20. Thanks for your understanding.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Fresh this Week from Truffle King
Truffle King is one of the vendors at the West Frederick Farmer's Market. Here is their most recent update:
Greetings Chocolate Lovers:
Hurrah, January is Over!! What a long, blah month it was. It’s time to celebrate. And on the 14th, it’s time to treat a friend, relative, spouse, squeeze or whomever deserves a delicious break from winter. Fragrant and warming cinnamon is the flavor of the month. It’s one of our customers’ favorites and only made this month. Stop by the Clustered Spires Pastry Shop and pick some up soon or call me for pick-up times or for mail orders.
Monthly flavors for FEBRUARY:
DARK
(58.5% Cacao)Semi-Sweet Chocolate & Heavy Cream Ganache enrobed in Semi-Sweet Chocolate
DARK/CINNAMON
(58.5% Cacao)Semi-Sweet Chocolate,Heavy Cream, Chinese Ground Cinnamon Ganache enrobed in Semi-Sweet Chocolate
MILK/CINNAMON
(41% Cacao Butter)Rich Sweet Milk Chocolate, Heavy Cream, Chinese Ground Cinnamon Ganache enrobed in Milk Chocolate
MIXED
Boxed mixes of dark/cinnamon and milk/cinnamon flavors in 6 pack and 12 pack boxes. Both flavors are evenly mixed.
Yours for good chocolate,
Timothy Miller, Chocolatier
Imperial Chocolate Company
301 788-5278
artco@mindspring.com
www.TruffleKing.com
