Locally Raised Chicken

[Pool Boy]

Been meaning to have a dinner with friends from a discussion group that centered on food, locavorism, etc. Idea is to have as locally produced a meal as possible, with one exception -- the main protein. The main protein will actually be two -- one will be a typical (think Perdue) supermarket chicken and the other is to be as locally raised as possible chicken (ideally free range, no cages, no hormones, no antibiotics, organic, etc). We would prepare both chickens identically and see which actually tasted better.

No the problem.

I was planning on getting the local chicken from the purveyor at the Silver Spring farmer's Market. But someone advised me they would not have any until May (as yet unconfirmed, but....).

So, is there a good local (ideally MD burbs, I live in Laurel, work in Bethesda, wife works in DC) source for locally raised chicken that I can acquire between now and Saturday morning (April 17th)???

HELP!

[goodeats]

Would Takoma Park Co-op have locally-raised chicken? I can't remember if they have a meat dept or not...

[chaofun]

I know its not in Md, but the weekday FreshFarms markets should have something. I'm sure Penn quarter (Thursday) would have something. At Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, Haskins Farm has chicken though I cannot vouch for it. For poultry Eco-friendly meats are my go to place but you can only get them on the weekends, unless somebody knows a butcher in DC/Md that carries them.

At any rate, Haskins is definitely local.

[catharine]

Eco-friendly foods usually has chicken at the Arlington farmers market on Saturday mornings. I picked some up last weekend.

Report back on the results of your experiment. Sounds interesting.

[MMM]

Check in the Bethesda Farm Women's Market. I have gotten farm-raised chickens there on Saturdays but there is a stand - Mullinix Meats, Phone: 301-652-2291 - that might also have them on Wednesdays. You could call or stop by tomorrow. (They are open Wednesdays and Saturdays and maybe Fridays too.)

[Pool Boy]

Thanks all for the help and the PMs. I'll check out the Bethesda Women's market tomorrow. If that is a bust, my wife or I can try at Foggy Bottom (times? exact location? help!). If that is a bust also, my wife should be able to check the Penn Quarter market on Thursday.

What about the Takoma Park farmers market -- is that on saturday or Sunday? I vaguely remember there being at least one meat vendor, but not sure if they also had chicken.

Worst case, I can get something at Laurel Meat Market, but they have birds primarily from Pennsylvania. Was trying to get something more local.

thanks!

[ol_ironstomach]

FWIW, I think it's still too early and seasonality IS a factor. There's far less difference between birds in the winter months, during which even the ones with access to fields will end up eating chicken feed anyway, simply because the grubs and insects are dormant. Once springtime hits, the birds that are field-raised really begin to differentiate themselves; you can really see and taste it in their eggs, and in the gelatin in the juices. It's dramatic even compared to "free-range" birds that aren't chased into the fields every day.

My favorite purveyor doesn't do their first processing until late May, but through the summer months their birds are incredible.

[Pool Boy]

You are probably right. But hey the idea for this dinner has been rescheduled a few times, so there's no turning back now. I've been meaning to try their birds and I hope to try them this season.

[Anna Blume]

See my reply in Silver Spring thread and moderators, feel free to transport it here and delete this post.

It's a matter of seasonality. I may be wrong, but I don't think Eco-Friendly had previously unfrozen local chickens this past week. Local chickens are a May thing.

PS. Notice the irony. There's a lesson for your group to learn here. If you can find a farmer with some of last season's chickens frozen, compare them to Perdue if you want.

Alternatives: Evensong just slaughtered some pigs. Many Rocks has fresh goat and is taking 1-week in advance orders for kid ($60 probably minimum since they're around 10 lbs. each)--try contacting the farm via its web site before Saturday's market at Silver Spring to see if Jeannie can do it.

Soft shell crabs are coming in earlier than usual, too, due to warm weather.

[MBK]

See my reply in Silver Spring thread and moderators, feel free to transport it here and delete this post.

It's a matter of seasonality. I may be wrong, but I don't think Eco-Friendly had previously unfrozen local chickens this past week. Local chickens are a May thing.

Correct. EFF won't have fresh local chickens for another few weeks. It's definitely a matter of seasonality.

[Toogs]

Awesome idea and PM sent. Go Laurel Locavores.

[chaofun]

Pool boy though didn't mention fresh vs frozen, just that it be local. I personally would take a frozen Eco-friendly bird anytime (and have all winter). Though I understand freshly harvested is better, its still a local bird, and still damn good.

Pool boy here is the link for the FreshFarms market in Foggy Bottom. Times and location are there, its right off the Foggy bottom Metro.

[Toogs]

I may be wrong, but if you're comparing to a chicken from Giant you might as well do frozen because theirs was.

Even if I am wrong, I will take any of the Evensong or Polyface birds from my deep freeze against anything a regular g-store has to offer.

I'd say add a bird from Bell and Evans/Whole Foods to the mix, or a free ranger from Trader Joes.

[zoramargolis]

Pool boy though didn't mention fresh vs frozen, just that it be local. I personally would take a frozen Eco-friendly bird anytime (and have all winter). Though I understand freshly harvested is better, its still a local bird, and still damn good.

Pool boy here is the link for the FreshFarms market in Foggy Bottom. Times and location are there, its right off the Foggy bottom Metro.

Check the FreshFarm website to find out which farmers come to the Foggy Bottom market to see if any of them sell chicken. I'm pretty sure that if you want Eco-Friendly, you'll have to wait until Saturday at Arlington. Why not send them an email and see if they can bring a couple of birds for you on Saturday?

[brucesaunders]

Been meaning to have a dinner with friends from a discussion group that centered on food, locavorism, etc. Idea is to have as locally produced a meal as possible, with one exception -- the main protein. The main protein will actually be two -- one will be a typical (think Perdue) supermarket chicken and the other is to be as locally raised as possible chicken (ideally free range, no cages, no hormones, no antibiotics, organic, etc). We would prepare both chickens identically and see which actually tasted better.

No the problem.

I was planning on getting the local chicken from the purveyor at the Silver Spring farmer's Market. But someone advised me they would not have any until May (as yet unconfirmed, but....).

So, is there a good local (ideally MD burbs, I live in Laurel, work in Bethesda, wife works in DC) source for locally raised chicken that I can acquire between now and Saturday morning (April 17th)???

HELP!

Good Morning Pool Boy, Bruce here with EcoFriendly Foods. I thought I'd weigh into this conversation from the EcoFriendly perspective. Our fresh poultry season generally runs from mid to late May through November, depending on the weather conditions. I'll give you a brief explanation of why weather is a factor which will also give you some insights on our growing protocols. All of our birds are raised on pasture in moveable pens (ala the Polyface Farm/Joel Salatin method). In the spring, weather conditions can vary a great deal from day to day and young chicks can quickly succumb to the cold wet conditions. Also the pastures have to be in a growth mode in order to provide the birds with the fresh young grass that they graze on (yes chickens graze). Likewise at the end of the season, an early winter can bring a halt to poultry production. So all that being said, we try to have extra harvests and larger harvests in the late fall in order to have a supply of birds to sell at our markets over the winter. As you can imagine by this time of the year we've drawn down those stocks and ideally by the time the new harvest season starts we'd like to have sold all of the previous seasons supply. This past week I had a few whole birds available and parts such as legs, french cut breasts and some stock making parts such as necks. I also had hearts and livers. I appreciate your wanting to do your comparative dinner but you've picked a tough time of the year to do it with poultry. I believe our first harvest will be May 18. If you'd like to contact me via email, I can see what I have and what I could get you this weekend. A couple of other quick notes about availability, I'm not familiar with the the farm doing poultry at Foggy Bottom but I do know that there's no poultry at the Thursday Penn Qtr. market (I work there for Endless Summer Harvest). Also as you plan your tasting, I'd like to ask you something. A couple of years ago the Post Magazine did an article on chicken farms. The farm they picked was a grow-out operation for one of the big producers (aka polluters) on the eastern shore, Tysons, Purdue, one of those. In the article was a picture in one of the confinement barns where thousands of chickens are housed and in the picture, were 3-4 workers. Each of them HAD to wear a full hazmat suit due to the polluted, fecal dust filled air inside the barn. Do you really want to eat this stuff? At EcoFriendly we represent several different small family farms that follow our pasture raised protocol. I can taste a difference in each of these products from the different producers and I have my preferences as to which I like better. What if your tasting compared local, pasture raised birds from several different farms, instead of comparing things that you may not want to eat and IMHO shouldn't be eating? Just a thought. Let me know if I can help out.

[FunnyJohn]

I was going to recommend Lebanese Butcher, although it would involve a trek to Falls Church for you. (Sounding like Johnny One-Note, since i also recommended LB for its lamb in another thread here). But having read Bruce's interesting and informative post, I'm not sure where LB would get its poultry at this time of year -- probably still local but not "free range" if that's what you're really interested in. FWIW: I think putting any locally produced bird, or actually almost any other bird up against a Purdue, would be unfairly rigging the contest in favor of the non-Purdue. In other words, Purdue birds SUCK!

[ETA: a more fair contest might involve your local against an Empire chicken which is purveyed at Trader Joes and Whole Foods, but since the freshness of the bird would maybe account for about 75% of the taste quality, any locally raised chicken obtained from a butcher who gets his birds daily, would probably beat out any supermarket-obtained chicken.]

[Pool Boy]

See my reply in Silver Spring thread and moderators, feel free to transport it here and delete this post.

It's a matter of seasonality. I may be wrong, but I don't think Eco-Friendly had previously unfrozen local chickens this past week. Local chickens are a May thing.

PS. Notice the irony. There's a lesson for your group to learn here. If you can find a farmer with some of last season's chickens frozen, compare them to Perdue if you want.

Alternatives: Evensong just slaughtered some pigs. Many Rocks has fresh goat and is taking 1-week in advance orders for kid ($60 probably minimum since they're around 10 lbs. each)--try contacting the farm via its web site before Saturday's market at Silver Spring to see if Jeannie can do it.

Soft shell crabs are coming in earlier than usual, too, due to warm weather.

Thanks for the comments. This is what we've chosen to do and perhaps it's not the best time of year to try this experiment. But doing this experiment we will. We can always try more experiments as the season progresses. Generally, we're already trying to eat better, eat more locally, more organically, knowing our food producers, etc.

Good Morning Pool Boy, Bruce here with EcoFriendly Foods. I thought I'd weigh into this conversation from the EcoFriendly perspective. Our fresh poultry season generally runs from mid to late May through November, depending on the weather conditions. I'll give you a brief explanation of why weather is a factor which will also give you some insights on our growing protocols. All of our birds are raised on pasture in moveable pens (ala the Polyface Farm/Joel Salatin method). In the spring, weather conditions can vary a great deal from day to day and young chicks can quickly succumb to the cold wet conditions. Also the pastures have to be in a growth mode in order to provide the birds with the fresh young grass that they graze on (yes chickens graze). Likewise at the end of the season, an early winter can bring a halt to poultry production. So all that being said, we try to have extra harvests and larger harvests in the late fall in order to have a supply of birds to sell at our markets over the winter. As you can imagine by this time of the year we've drawn down those stocks and ideally by the time the new harvest season starts we'd like to have sold all of the previous seasons supply. This past week I had a few whole birds available and parts such as legs, french cut breasts and some stock making parts such as necks. I also had hearts and livers. I appreciate your wanting to do your comparative dinner but you've picked a tough time of the year to do it with poultry. I believe our first harvest will be May 18. If you'd like to contact me via email, I can see what I have and what I could get you this weekend. A couple of other quick notes about availability, I'm not familiar with the the farm doing poultry at Foggy Bottom but I do know that there's no poultry at the Thursday Penn Qtr. market (I work there for Endless Summer Harvest). Also as you plan your tasting, I'd like to ask you something. A couple of years ago the Post Magazine did an article on chicken farms. The farm they picked was a grow-out operation for one of the big producers (aka polluters) on the eastern shore, Tysons, Purdue, one of those. In the article was a picture in one of the confinement barns where thousands of chickens are housed and in the picture, were 3-4 workers. Each of them HAD to wear a full hazmat suit due to the polluted, fecal dust filled air inside the barn. Do you really want to eat this stuff? At EcoFriendly we represent several different small family farms that follow our pasture raised protocol. I can taste a difference in each of these products from the different producers and I have my preferences as to which I like better. What if your tasting compared local, pasture raised birds from several different farms, instead of comparing things that you may not want to eat and IMHO shouldn't be eating? Just a thought. Let me know if I can help out.

Thanks for the information. It is much appreciated. This experiment is being done specifically to highlight the differences between mass-produced poultry versus poultry raised in a much better way. I suspect that the perdue (or whatever) chicken will go largely uneaten (or fed to my patio cats (strays)) if the taste isn't there.

[Pool Boy]

Pool boy though didn't mention fresh vs frozen, just that it be local. I personally would take a frozen Eco-friendly bird anytime (and have all winter). Though I understand freshly harvested is better, its still a local bird, and still damn good.

Pool boy here is the link for the FreshFarms market in Foggy Bottom. Times and location are there, its right off the Foggy bottom Metro.

Thanks. Heading to the Bethesda women's coop market (?) presently to see what I can get. Hell, I might end up with too many chickens by going around looking for them.

FWIW, we're trying to also stay as local as possible with the rest of the menu, too. We'll have a sampling of local and sort-of-local wines, the veggies and sides will be with as locally raised/seasonal produce as we can get and the same goes for the dessert.

[synaesthesia]

I know you're from further north. We used to get chickens from Richardson Farms all the time when I was growing up. http://www.richardsonfarms.net/

[Choirgirl21]

Specifically wanted to answer your question about Takoma - that market is on Sunday so no help to you there.

I don't think you'll get the level of distinction necessary to compare the difference if you go with chickens from the Laurel meat market either. As much as I love having that market available to me in a pinch (and I'm happy to support a local business in those cases) those birds are not pastured in the true sense. You can tell by their color if nothing else, although I have spoken with the folks behind the meat counter as well. They are naturally raised and are relatively locally sourced and not injected with anything so again, a reasonable compromise in a pinch, but probably don't suit your purposes. On that note, it sounds like you guys have really made up your mind and aren't changing it now, but if the purpose is to truly appreciate the difference b/w a grocery store bird and a truly pastured bird, it doesn't make sense to me to compromise on the local bird b/c you're set on doing the tasting now. It wouldn't make sense to decide to do a radish tasting in December just b/c that's when you want to do it, meat really isn't any different with the exception that you can get it frozen. So if you can get a frozen bird from someone like Bruce at EcoFriendly, great, otherwise I would really consider changing your theme for this week.

If you do decide to wait, I would really encourage you to get a chicken from Polyface (they have a buying club iwth regular local deliveries, including in Laurel) or from someone who follows Salatin's model, like Bruce or the new meat vendor who will be at the Greenbelt market starting May 9th.

Good luck and I hope you'll share the results! We've done this with beef amongst our friends in the past, I think it's a great idea!

[Pool Boy]

I do appreciate the suggestions here and the thought to shift what we're going to make, but it is unlikely to change. We're going to do the best we can for this dinner and then do it again over the course of the year with other options... Bethesda Coop was a bust today. Will keep looking.

[Choirgirl21]

I do appreciate the suggestions here and the thought to shift what we're going to make, but it is unlikely to change. We're going to do the best we can for this dinner and then do it again over the course of the year with other options... Bethesda Coop was a bust today. Will keep looking.

Are you willing to do some driving? If so, try contacting Catherine atLegacy Manor Farms. I have no idea if she has chicken yet, or if she has some leftover/frozen, but she's a great producer and she supplies meat through the local raw milk coop so she may have some still. They're in Boonsboro - unless you could catch her in time for a local raw milk drop off, you'd have to drive to her farm if she has it. It's my last thought (of course, you could ask any number of farms if you're willing to drive to them). If you do end up talking to her, tell her Jen from the Greenbelt Farmers Market recommended her to you.

Actually, you might just try the grassfedonthehill group. Occasionally one of the organizers stores some extra stuff, usually whole chickens, in her freezer for sale. You have to become a member though.

[Choirgirl21]

So how did the dinner go? A little birdie told me you did get a chicken.

[Pool Boy]

Oh too much to type up now. It was great though. I will post more on this dinner soon. PROMISE!

[Pool Boy]

I have finally finished composing a note about the dinner we had for this chicken experiment. Enjoy!

A Local Dinner

No, not a low-calorie dinner. Local. Close. Nearby. Within your immediate area. A local dinner was the objective.

Huh?

Last year, a few neighbors of ours set out to participate in a discussion group (from the Simplicity Matters Earth Institute folks) – this one was called Menu for the Future. It was, as you may have guessed, about food. Organic. Deep organic. Factory farming. Bioengineering plants. Etc. It was a great discussion group. At the end of it all, our little group thought a great way to finish things off was with a meal. Ideally a meal made with local stuff – stuff made or sourced locally. And pick something to do a food industrial complex vs. organic/local/etc comparison. We chose chicken. Perdue vs. something local.

One of the things that struck virtually all of us in the group, during the discussions, was just how impossibly difficult it is to do everything ‘perfectly correct’ with respect to the idea suggested by the subject matter. Eat local. Eat organic. Know your food. Know who you are buying the food from. Know how your food is raised. No hormones. No antibiotics. No radiation. No genetically modified stuff. No pesticides. No matter how hard you try, unless you make all of your own food, it is almost impossible to be ‘perfect’.

In order to even try to come remotely close to achieving a goal of all of this, there basically have to be concessions made. Like what? Well, I am not giving up coffee. Or clementines. Or bananas. Or name some food you love that you cannot grow within 30 miles of your home. It has to be remotely convenient. Knowing a farmer that has the perfect produce is wonderful, but if this farmer requires a two hour round trip to get said produce, that is inconvenient and also wasteful (think gas). Think about eggs. Is cage free better than free range? Is organic better than not? What about extra omega-3s. Should you go for those or not? What about the ones that come in the plastic trays – kind of defeats the purpose (since plastic is so wasteful). Should be local above all else? In the end, it’s all about finding your own way in the food jungle and doing what feels right for you and your food budget, and what makes sense. Even trending a bit in the ‘right’ direction has gotta be better than not, right? That’s what I think and that’s what I am going with.

So, with the idea in mind, we ended up rescheduling a few times to finally do it on April 17th. A little early in the season, perhaps, but we clearly didn’t think it through too well, but I think you’ll see we did OK.

The Menu

A simple spring salad

Roast chicken

Potatoes a la Julia (as in Julia Child, more on this later)

Roasted asparagus with greens

Walnut Raisin bread

Wine

Goat Cheese Apple tart

Dessert/Sweet wine

Coffee

We sourced everything locally. I think everyone sources locally, on the surface. You go to your local grocery store and you buy stuff. Now the challenge was to find stuff made locally. Or, better yet, raised/produced locally. Throw in some organic, hormone free, antibiotic free and other buzzwords all the better. Here’s what we sourced and where –

Ingredients

The spring salad came from MOM (My Organic Market) in College Park, MD – local pea shoots, radishes, shiitake. The leaf lettuce was not local, but it was grown in the USA at least.

The potatoes are a type of au gratin potatoes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Vol 1) from Julia Child. The potatoes were sourced from the local farm stand that also brings non-local produce when their own stuff (or other local stuff) is not ready yet. So the potatoes were from North Dakota. The butter was reasonably local (Chambersburg, PA), as was the milk. The cheese, gruyere, was not local (made in Switzerland), and the garlic was grown in the USA. All of these later items were also obtained at MOM.

One of the dinner participants brought roasted asparagus (locally grown) served with extra leaf greens and herbs from their early spring garden.

The walnut raisin bread was baked locally of ingredients of unknown origin. Brought by one of the dinner participants, it was also sourced at MOM, so there is a good chance that the ingredients are pretty good, and at least partially local.

The pre-dinner chit-chat wine was a Vouvray from France, so clearly not local. But the dinner wines were a 2006 Black Ankle Rolling Hills red wine and a 2007 Serpent Ridge Basilisk (a red wine made of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon). Both are wineries in Maryland, and these wines in particular contain wine made from the juice of grapes grown 100% in Maryland.

The goat cheese apple tart was made from puff pastry that was pre-packaged and made most likely by the food industrial complex. It was sourced at a local Safeway grocery store. Making your own puff pastry is possible, but terribly inconvenient. The goat cheese we were looking for was unavailable, so we opted for the most local we could find, which was from Vermont. The apples are locally grown Fuji apples and the honey served with was local (from an apiary in Frederick County, MD). The butter used was from the same Chambersburg, PA batch used elsewhere.

The chicken. The Purdue chicken came from the local Safeway. This was what we’d be comparing against. The ‘local’ chicken was much more difficult to find. Apparently, local chickens, the first of the season, would likely not be ready and available until sometime in May. So, rather than change gears to compare something else (say, pork chops) I tried my best to find a local chicken, somehow, somewhere. Farmers markets would be my best option, but, after checking things out and making inquiries, it was unlikely that I’d find what I was looking for. My best bet was to contact one of the producers to see if they had some frozen from the final harvest in November of last year still available. A lot of my research and assistance in my effort to locate a local chicken happened on a local food website/community. In the end, I got several offers from local folks that had local chickens from local producers that they offered to make available to me. AMAZING! In the end, someone who lives in the same town, who grew up in the neighborhood in which I live, gave me a choice of two different birds. Then, since his mother still lives in the neighborhood, offered to drop it off personally as he needed to head over for a visit anyway. Small world indeed. The chicken was an Evensong Farms chicken, a Poulet Rouge, from Sharpsburg, MD.

Other ingredients….Lemons were of unknown, but organic origin. Thyme was organic, and probably local, but could not be confirmed. Olive oils came from places unknown. Coffee was Sumatran, I think, so that’s on the whole other side of the planet.

Perdue versus Evensong Farms

The Perdue was very loose and wobbly. The skin had machine markings and was thin and torn in one spot. The neck had been removed. The organs were in a separate baggy inserted in the body cavity. One of the leg ‘handle’s broke off as I was handling the bird, getting it ready to be trussed. The bird was an eerie yellow, probably from the marigold seeds they feed them to make them look ‘healthy’. It weighed in at about 3.5 lbs.

The Evensong Farms bird was firm and well structured. The skin was beautiful and white. The neck was not removed. The organs were in a separate container altogether. The bird was basically pre-trussed using some of the extra skin, so I had no work to do on this bird at all on the trussing front. It weighed in somewhere between 4 to 4.5 pounds. This is one beautiful bird.

Both birds were brined using the same basic brine – water, salt, sugar, bay leaves, thyme, garlic, and juniper berries. Both birds were roasted the same way at the same temperature, but the Evensong Farms bird was in the oven just a bit longer so it would finish roasting (it took longer since it is a bigger bird). Both birds had in the cavity some garlic, onion, thyme and lemon (and pepper – no salt was needed due to the brining).

How Did It All Taste?

Everything was delicious. But, with respect to the chicken, I believe the majority of folks preferred the Evensong Farms chicken over the Perdue chicken. I had carved the chickens out of site of everyone and asked that everyone take some of each bird and to keep them separate so they remember which pieces came from which bird (serving plate). So, I knew which was which, but everyone else did not know which was which. Some preferred the slightly chewier nature of the Perdue chicken. The Evensong Farms chicken was extremely tender. The legs and thighs were absolute standouts compared to the Perdue, too.

In the end, though, was it worth the price difference? The Perdue chicken was $9 and change. The Evensong Farms chicken was $18 – almost double the price. Maybe not for everyone’s budget. Plus, it isn’t always going to be that easy to get a local chicken. Prices are higher when bought at a local store (like MOM) or the Farmers Market (as opposed to directly at the farm), too.

What Do I Think?

For me? I preferred the Evensong Farms chicken. Maybe not enough to buy it every time I want a chicken, but I do like to know that it is not something coming to me from 100, 500 or 1000 miles away and that it is raised in a manner which I prefer.

I look forward to continuing down the path towards more local/organic foods and even comparing things side by side in the future. I do this all the time with wine, but I have rarely done this with food up to this point. Should be fun!

[Anna Blume]

Thanks for the report!

The first of the available-for-everyone local chickens in markets I frequent will be from Evensong and Groff's Content Farm who sell at the Silver Spring farmers' market on Saturday, among other places. I know Evensong raises a breed that takes less time to mature (little chickens) for a chef; not sure if that's what you got.

The folk at Eco-Friendly and Smith Meadows told me late May, though the former said the supply's limited and many more will be coming our way in June.

Don't know about Haskins or some of the other farms that sell in DC metro areas.

***************

P.S. VA Lamb tried raising chickens in hoop tunnels this past winter--given the number of storms we had, it wasn't exactly the best year for the experiment. Chickens ideally go out to the ends of the tunnel to poop, but given the cold and the piles of snow, they only ventured to the edge of the shelter and turned right around instead. Unpleasant results.

[Pool Boy]

I'll be looking for more local chickens during the season. And I hope to stock up near the end of the season, too, to make it through the winter and early spring.

[Choirgirl21]

Thanks for the great summary. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it. And I think you make valid points about all the decisions to potentially be made about your food and the potential compromises that come with those decisions, but I do want to say that I've been doing this (mostly) local/humane/organic/healthful eating thing for some time now and it's not as hard as you think. Keep exploring, and don't hesitate to ask on here for good sources. And yes, you hit the nail on the head, any choices made in light of any of these considerations is better than not.

[Pool Boy]

I think the local/seasonal part of it to be a bit of a challenge actually. It's not impossible, but how far do you go out of your way on a regular basis to get things locally? There's a convenience factor that cannot be ignored, and also the idea of driving 45 minutes to buy 6 chickens as the sole purpose that sits opposed to the idea (burning gas and time just to get something local).

Do not get me wrong, I plan on embracing as much of the locally produced/grown/raised idea as I am willing and able to, but it is all about tradeoffs. ;-)

[Choirgirl21]

I think the local/seasonal part of it to be a bit of a challenge actually. It's not impossible, but how far do you go out of your way on a regular basis to get things locally?

I don't, that's the thing. That's why I encouraged you to keep exploring and to ask here for sources. As you do, you discover that local food is easily obtainable in our area, primarily from buying clubs and farmers markets where it's A vehicle bringing food for many many people.

I mostly get my meat from 3 sources:

-Forest Fed, where the pigs spend their days happily foraging for acorns and other goodies in the woods - best tasting pork I have EVER had. He delivers to downtown Silver Spring 2x/month I think and his drop off time overlaps with the SS farmers market

-Polyface buying club - drop offs both in Laurel, where I live, and Silver Spring, where I work. I believe they're monthly. I'm pretty sure the Laurel drop off is actually in the neighborhood you live in.

-Local farmers markets that are producer only, primarily Greenbelt, but I also sometimes visit Takoma Park, Silver Spring, or even occasionally the market under 83 in Baltimore.

Produce comes from the same farmers markets and for about 20 weeks in the summer, my CSA, which I pick up a few miles from my house at the farm.

I used to get dairy from a raw milk group that had local deliveries (organized through a yahoo group site) but I wasn't going through the milk fast enough so I quit doing that and now get the Trickling Springs grass-fed local milk at MOM's. They also have deliveries set up from local farmers/vendors for all kinds of things from meat to organic chocolate made with grass-fed milk. Closest pick-ups for that group are Laurel and Greenbelt. I often got my thanksgiving turkey through farmers they hooked us up with too. That group is also a great place to get input on where to find local sources for less obvious things like grains - they'll even share their kombucha starter.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Most of this stuff is available year round although I will admit the lack of produce Dec-Mar is challenging. I am going to try to do better this year to stock up and freeze/pickle/can at the end of hte season. Polyface deliveries also end in the fall so I try to stock up on things from them over the season and then just fill in from my other sources through the winter.

Oh, I also dabble in some container gardening, but I assure you, I'm not particularly good at it so not much of my food comes from that.

If you're interested in details or links for anything I mentioned, PM me, I'd be happy to share. Or stop by the Greenbelt market this Sunday. It's their "opening" day - I'll be there from around 10:30 on, shopping earlier and then volunteering at the info booth 12-2.

[Pool Boy]

I don't, that's the thing. That's why I encouraged you to keep exploring and to ask here for sources. As you do, you discover that local food is easily obtainable in our area, primarily from buying clubs and farmers markets where it's A vehicle bringing food for many many people.

I mostly get my meat from 3 sources:

-Forest Fed, where the pigs spend their days happily foraging for acorns and other goodies in the woods - best tasting pork I have EVER had. He delivers to downtown Silver Spring 2x/month I think and his drop off time overlaps with the SS farmers market

-Polyface buying club - drop offs both in Laurel, where I live, and Silver Spring, where I work. I believe they're monthly. I'm pretty sure the Laurel drop off is actually in the neighborhood you live in.

-Local farmers markets that are producer only, primarily Greenbelt, but I also sometimes visit Takoma Park, Silver Spring, or even occasionally the market under 83 in Baltimore.

Produce comes from the same farmers markets and for about 20 weeks in the summer, my CSA, which I pick up a few miles from my house at the farm.

I used to get dairy from a raw milk group that had local deliveries (organized through a yahoo group site) but I wasn't going through the milk fast enough so I quit doing that and now get the Trickling Springs grass-fed local milk at MOM's. They also have deliveries set up from local farmers/vendors for all kinds of things from meat to organic chocolate made with grass-fed milk. Closest pick-ups for that group are Laurel and Greenbelt. I often got my thanksgiving turkey through farmers they hooked us up with too. That group is also a great place to get input on where to find local sources for less obvious things like grains - they'll even share their kombucha starter.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Most of this stuff is available year round although I will admit the lack of produce Dec-Mar is challenging. I am going to try to do better this year to stock up and freeze/pickle/can at the end of hte season. Polyface deliveries also end in the fall so I try to stock up on things from them over the season and then just fill in from my other sources through the winter.

Oh, I also dabble in some container gardening, but I assure you, I'm not particularly good at it so not much of my food comes from that.

If you're interested in details or links for anything I mentioned, PM me, I'd be happy to share. Or stop by the Greenbelt market this Sunday. It's their "opening" day - I'll be there from around 10:30 on, shopping earlier and then volunteering at the info booth 12-2.

Hmm. I think I need to differentiate between 'possible' and 'convenient/easy'. Sure, it is possible to do and get everything local, can/preserve and be perfect. I'm not perfect and I know myself well enough that I will make compromises for convenience.

This all being said, you have shared great info here. And I will make moves towards a more local foodie lifestyle.

--I LOVE ForestFed pork -- I completely agree it is the best pork that I have ever had. And it is reasonably convenient to me.

--Polyface does have a drop off in my neighborhood. I was already aware of this, but the pickup times are impossible for working people. Who is home in the middle of the day to pick up your stuff? Not me.

--We're trying a CSA this year for the first time (we're trying Gorman Produce Farm) and adjusting our home veggie plot to things we have had good success with in the past...

--We'll try and hit the Farmers markets with greater frequency this year...but the weekday ones in Bethesda are gone. Have tried Silver Spring and liked it. Takoma Park is good, but too crowded generally. Maybe I will try Greenbelt soon. But my weekends are so jammed it won't be until June before I get to any of them. Ah well.

I'll be trying, but tempering it with a dose of reality. ;-)

[Choirgirl21]

Hmm. I think I need to differentiate between 'possible' and 'convenient/easy'. Sure, it is possible to do and get everything local, can/preserve and be perfect. I'm not perfect and I know myself well enough that I will make compromises for convenience.

This all being said, you have shared great info here. And I will make moves towards a more local foodie lifestyle.

--I LOVE ForestFed pork -- I completely agree it is the best pork that I have ever had. And it is reasonably convenient to me.

--Polyface does have a drop off in my neighborhood. I was already aware of this, but the pickup times are impossible for working people. Who is home in the middle of the day to pick up your stuff? Not me.

--We're trying a CSA this year for the first time (we're trying Gorman Produce Farm) and adjusting our home veggie plot to things we have had good success with in the past...

--We'll try and hit the Farmers markets with greater frequency this year...but the weekday ones in Bethesda are gone. Have tried Silver Spring and liked it. Takoma Park is good, but too crowded generally. Maybe I will try Greenbelt soon. But my weekends are so jammed it won't be until June before I get to any of them. Ah well.

I'll be trying, but tempering it with a dose of reality. ;-)

Ah, it appears that our ideas of convenient may be different. Of course, I'm the person who relishes my Sunday morning trip to the market above most other things. It is really my favorite way to start off the day, wandering around chatting with the farmers about what's new and interesting while drinking a cup of iced Zeke's and munching on a pastry of some sort. The best days are the ones where I let myself get some awesome crazy flavor of homemade ice cream in addition, but I don't do that often - you have to draw the line somewhere, right?

I did forget that the Polyface drop offs are during the day. That's why I do the SS pick-up instead of the Laurel one, it's close to my office. Glad to hear you've joined the Gorman farm CSA though. I'm interested to see how ti goes this year - it started off slow last year but by mid-season they had a ton of stuff. It was their first year too so I'm excited for this year's.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I'm in no way perfect - I particularly sucked at my efforts this winter - and I certainly make compromises. I won't give up coffee for instance, so I go with locally roasted and environmentally friendly. I just wanted to share some of the options I knew about that make is easy for me since you live close, but clearly you already know about all of them so back into my hole I go.

[Pool Boy]

Ah, it appears that our ideas of convenient may be different. Of course, I'm the person who relishes my Sunday morning trip to the market above most other things. It is really my favorite way to start off the day, wandering around chatting with the farmers about what's new and interesting while drinking a cup of iced Zeke's and munching on a pastry of some sort. The best days are the ones where I let myself get some awesome crazy flavor of homemade ice cream in addition, but I don't do that often - you have to draw the line somewhere, right?

I did forget that the Polyface drop offs are during the day. That's why I do the SS pick-up instead of the Laurel one, it's close to my office. Glad to hear you've joined the Gorman farm CSA though. I'm interested to see how ti goes this year - it started off slow last year but by mid-season they had a ton of stuff. It was their first year too so I'm excited for this year's.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I'm in no way perfect - I particularly sucked at my efforts this winter - and I certainly make compromises. I won't give up coffee for instance, so I go with locally roasted and environmentally friendly. I just wanted to share some of the options I knew about that make is easy for me since you live close, but clearly you already know about all of them so back into my hole I go.

No need to hide away at all. I guess I just realize life gets in the way sometimes, and my desire to eat local is sometime pushed aside by me being a lazy ass on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

[Anna Blume]

Yesterday in a rainy farmers market, Groff's Content Farm used a portable burner to cook up one of its chickens, seasoned with salt and pepper. This one was previously frozen, but recently raised and slaughtered; next week they might have some fresh, unfrozen birds. Since Whole Foods has Bell Evans on sale in one form or another every week, I rarely buy poultry at the market. However, this was so delicious...

[bookluvingbabe]

Yesterday in a rainy farmers market, Groff's Content Farm used a portable burner to cook up one of its chickens, seasoned with salt and pepper. This one was previously frozen, but recently raised and slaughtered; next week they might have some fresh, unfrozen birds. Since Whole Foods has Bell Evans on sale in one form or another every week, I rarely buy poultry at the market. However, this was so delicious...

The Groff's Content chicken was amazing.

I didn't buy any because I had a whole chicken sitting at home from a new vendor at Takoma Park. But I will be buying chicken from Groff's next week.

[Anna Blume]

The Groff's Content chicken was amazing.

I didn't buy any because I had a whole chicken sitting at home from a new vendor at Takoma Park. But I will be buying chicken from Groff's next week.

I picked up two frozen thighs at Silver Spring market on Saturday where there were also fresh, whole chickens. A bit of the back is attached which doesn't thrill me, but it can go in freezer-back of stock contents. At least pope's nose is in there, too.

This Sunday, Eco-Friendly had some fresh chickens for around $15 that were bigger than their mini poussins.

[goldenticket]

This Sunday, Eco-Friendly had some fresh chickens for around $15 that were bigger than their mini poussins.

Wow - we bought a couple of those spring chickens on Sunday. Grilled one that night (beer can style) - fantastic! Little to no fat, juicy throughout - a great bird. We had a Bell and Evans chicken, prepared in similar fashion, a week or so ago - not bad, but the Eco-Friendly bird was much better.