I actually have TWO this week for One Local Summer, so I’m jamming them into one post instead of splitting them into two. This week was husband’s final week home before going out to a ship for quite a long while, so he took advantage of the time home to cook up a storm. This is me, not complaining. First up! A house favorite, biscuits and gravy with a side of yogurt and strawberries and of course, coffee. We made our biscuits with lard – I have no idea where the recipe came from, but if I find out, I’ll add a link – and they come out so delightful. We had the buttermilk for the gravy and it felt like it would be a slight not to include it in the biscuits as well. The flour is probably my favorite part of this. We actually have an old stone mill locally that buys their wheat from PA farmers and then mills it with a gigantic water wheel just a few minutes down the road. They sell it, along with cornmeal, to help fund the mill’s educational programs and it’s SUCH a delight to have locally grown and milled wheat available to us, not to mention the historic aspect of the fact that it was ground in a mill that’s 250 years old! In order to make the meal just a little more healthy, we added the side of strawberries and yogurt. The coffee? Not local, but I dare you to tell me that I can’t have it with breakfast.
Ingredients:
Lard – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Sausage – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Strawberries – Hoagland Farm
Yogurt – Seven Stars Farm
Buttermilk – Maplehofe Dairy
Non Local – Coffee, Salt, Pepper
I did mention this was a two-fer, right? Second local meal for the week features ribs with grilled vegetables, a cucumber salad and CHEESE. The ribs were cooked in the slow cooker first and then given a quick roast in the oven with our own homemade fruit ketchup using tomatoes and apples from the farmers market and peaches from our own tree. Pretty sure this is the same recipe we used from the Ball Canning Book for the ketchup. The veggies on the side were carrots, snap peas, and zucchini. Then there was the classic cucumber salad – cucumbers soaked in vinegar making not-quite-pickles, but a nice refreshing not-lettuce sort of salad for the side. Then there’s the CHEESE – I believe that’s all Birchrun Hills cheese between Fat Cat, Red Cat, and some Clipper. REALLY a good dinner – the ribs were absolutely perfect and it was a nice way to end a stormy evening.
Ingredients:
Ribs – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – Jack’s Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Snap peas – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Non Local – Homemade Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil