Locavore In Training

As I mentioned, we lost every bit of our food due to the power outages from Hurricane Irene. Figured this was a pretty good time to get refocused in local food! Thus, my weekly shopping on Saturday went from one stop to three. First up was the Anne Arundel County Farmer's Market. I was clearly in good company with this plan- the traffic was crazy! But, I ended up with some good loot!

• Gala apples
• Asian pears
• Peaches
• These tiny fruits that seem like a cross between a plum and apricot - wish I'd written down the name! Plum cot?
• Blueberry jam
• Onions
• Garlic
• Green beans

I could have bought more but the crowds used up my patience!

My next stop was a new destination - My Butcher and More. How great is this:

Our meats are hormone, steroid, and antibiotic free at the time of harvest and come from independently owned farms where the animals are humanely raised. The animals are 100% grass fed or they are fed all natural non-animal by-product feeds.

I'd seen them on the listing for a local dairy, and figured it was worth the visit. Yes, it definitely was! Even though they were in the process of restocking due to Irene (popular task, apparently) they still had most everything I was looking for. They were closed almost a full week due to power outage, and told me they had lost over $8k worth of meat. So sad!

I tried to add ground pork to this list (for meatball making) but their machines were busy making their italian sausage. As a concession, they offered up the option to buy the sweet Italian sausage, fresh off the machine!

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (sliced in half, so I can pound for Gina's Chicken Rollatini - wonder if I'll ever find local prosciutto?) from New York
• 4 links house-made sweet Italian sausage (only 3 remain... so tasty!)
• 1 package pre-formed Bison burger patties from Gunpower Bison in Monkton, MD (Really excited to find a source for this that doesn't require a trip to the Downtown Annapolis Farmer's Market!)
• Quart of 2% milk Kilby Cream in Rising Sun, Maryland. (Ironically, this was not the dairy who lead me to My Butcher, but it was what they had in stock. They may have also had their ice cream, which I'll have to try at some point... but trying to remember the goal of local food consumption and at least weight maintenance!)
• 1 lb tub salted butter Kilby Cream

I rounded out the day at Safeway for some necessities like soda and flavored water. Also, bread and mayo, which yes I could make myself... but it wasn't on the agenda for this week. I ended up making some peach, pear skillet jam on Sunday, which I'll share soon!