Finding the Best Local Foods

by Sally Zimmermann

 

My favorites

 

Searching for local food

 

Farms

  • Jehovah-Jireh Farm, Dickerson, MD – offers pastured chickens and eggs, with chicken sales on-farm only.  It’s worth the drive.  Their eggs are sold at MOMs and The Common Market.  They have a great monthly newsletter and back issues are available on their website.
  • Legacy Manor Farm, Boonsboro, MD – pastured beef, pork and chicken, on-farm sales, farmers’ markets, and they deliver to our food club.
  • Keswick Creamery, Newburg, PA – cheeses.  You can purchase their products at local farmers’ markets and stores.  They also sell in bulk to our food club.
  • Polyface, Swoope, VA – pastured beef, pork and chicken.  On-farm sales and various D.C. neighborhood drop sites.
  • Tuscarora, Hustontown, PA – bulk produce, $150.00 minimum order, delivers to our food club.  Note, this is a co-op of many small farms.
  • West Wind Farm, Grassy Meadows, WV – grass fed beef, delivers to the D.C. area.  I split a ¼ cow with a friend and we each get 50 lbs of beef.  We have a two hour pick up window at a local church.

 

Pick your own farms

·        Blueberry Gardens, Ashton, MD – organic, but pricey

·        Butler's Orchard, Germantown, MD – very close to the Germantown MC campus

·        Homestead Farm, Poolesville, MD – kids love their animals

·        Larriland Farm, Lisbon, MD – very helpful in the fields, they teach how to pick the best fruits

 

Farmers’ Markets - year round

 

Markets/orchards

·        Catoctin Mountain Orchard – Thurmont, MD, if you’re traveling, it’s worth the stop, some of the best tasting fruits around

·        Hepburn Orchards Fruit Market – Hancock, MD, if you’re traveling, it’s worth the stop

·        Lewis Orchards – Dickerson, MD

 

Plant and seed sources

·     Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - America’s top source for pure heirloom seeds

·     Edible Landscaping – best selection of fruit trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables around.  A three hour drive to Charlottesville, VA.  They also ship.

·     Fedco - cooperative seed and garden supply company, the first to stop purchasing Seminis seeds after it was purchased by Monsanto

·     Montgomery College plant sales – vegetables, flowers, herbs, trees

·     Southern Exposure Seed Exchange - Richmond VA    

 

Stores

  • The Common Market, Frederick, MD – best prices, my favorite local place
  • MOMs Organic Market, Rockville, MD – beats Whole Foods in price and quality
  • Sonnewald Natural Foods, located outside of York, PA – the best, their refrigerated bulk room is something else.  Too bad it’s not closer
  • TPSS Co-op, located in Takoma Park, MD and Silver Spring, MD – local produce
  • Yes! Organic Market, locations in D.C.

 

Organizations

 

Books

  • Cookbooks

o       Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice – cooking through the seasons, recipes and information

o       The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook by Shannon Hayes – Comprehensive guide about grass-fed and pasture-raised meats.  Number one recommendation for those just starting to purchase grass-fed meats.  Grass-fed meats require less cooking time, lower oven temperatures, and less seasoning (because they already have flavor).

o       Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon – a look at what your great-grandparents ate, recipes and information

  • Garden

o       Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

o       Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting  by R. J. Ruppenthal – includes container gardening and using vertical space

o       Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman

o       Gardening When It Counts – Growing food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon

o       Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew – a great starter book

  • Other

o       Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal:  War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin

o       Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating by Jeffrey Smith

 

Movies

  • Fresh – thinking about what we’ve eating, not available on Netflix.   Possibly we could arrange another college-wide showing or purchase a DVD for the MC library.
  • The Future of Food - investigates genetically engineered foods, Netflix
  • The Garden – an inspiring movie about a community garden in Los Angeles, Netflix
  • King Corn – two friends plant an acre of GM corn and then follow it into our food system.   Possibly we could arrange a college-wide showing or purchase a DVD for the MC library.

 

Websites

·        The Dervaes Family – transformed an ordinary city lot in Pasadena, California into an organic and sustainable micro-farm

·        www.foodclub.org – the web-based software program used by my food club

·        Grow It Eat It: Maryland's Food Gardening Network – UMD Extension Service

·        Harvey Ussery – The Modern Homestead, a farm innovator in Virginia whose experiments in food production on an acre of land are inspiring

·        Montgomery Victory Gardens – a clearinghouse of information for gardeners and local foodies

·        The Permaculture Institute of Australia – self sufficient and sustainable gardens

·        Sprout People – best place for sprouting supplies and directions

·        "The Importance of Local Food - Lessons from Haiti" by Myron Horst of Jehovah-Jireh Farm –   agriculture in America is being dismantled more and more each year and we are becoming dependent on imported food.

 

Other

·        Composting – free bins though Montgomery County

·        Composted leaf  mold – free, bring your own containers and load it up, Takoma Park Public Works, 31 Oswego Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910 

·        Melissa Gildea – landscape designer and MC professor, does consultations for a reasonable fee

·        Montgomery County: Cooperative Extension Service – offers a free garden help line (301) 590-9638, also free plant and pest identification at their Muncaster Road location.