Turkey Time

Sarah and her son pick up their delicious, fresh turkey from Local Harvest Grocery.

Hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is a month away. Local Harvest Grocery is offering fresh, Broadbreasted Turkeys from Farrar Out Farm.  The turkeys are $3.49/lb. You can choose the size range of 14-17lb or 18-22lb turkeys.   A $25 deposit is required to hold your turkey.  A Turkey Pick-Up Night is scheduled for November 22nd.  Last year’s was really fun and created a wonderful sense of community. 

We have 100 turkeys total available for sale and already we’ve sold about 25. If you want to sample the turkey, we are smoking at least one turkey a week at our cafe and serving it in our dinner menu.  I enjoyed a few slices last week and found it to be very flavorful and moist!

Farrar Out Farm is a small family farm located about 90 miles south of St. Louis. This husband and wife team has a passion for cooking and eating great food. They started their farm venture because they realized in order to eat the freshest, healthiest food available they needed to raise it themselves.  The Truempers raise certified naturally grown produce, pasture raised Berkshire pigs, eggs, chicken, ducks, geese, broadbreast, and heritage breed turkeys.

 

Get Your Farm Aid On

With Farm Aid in town this weekend, there are alot of great things going on for the local food community (see below for some info on those). One thing you might not have heard about is a public event co-sponsored by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center called “A Farmer/Urban Connection,” which will run from 5:00 – 6:30pm on Saturday, October 3 at the First Presbyterian Church at 7200 Delmar Blvd. The event will discuss a number of challenges and opportunities facing family farm agriculture and how the public can help create a vibrant family farm food system. Please register at www.farmaid.org/RSVP.

Also, going on this Farm Aid weekend:

Homegrown Country Fair at the Tower Grover Farmers Market – Saturday, October 3rd, 10am-2:30pm
Farm Aid Farmer Cook-off at the Taste of St. Louis – Saturday, October 3rd, 11:00am-12:15pm
Farm Aid Eve at Blueberry Hill – Saturday, October 3rd, 7:30pm

- Brian DeSmet

 

Know Your Farmer Dinner/Anniversary Celebration

KNOW YOUR FOOD CELEBRATION and ANNIVERSARY PARTIES

September 16-20, 2009

 

Two years call for a celebration!        

Local Harvest Grocery, est. 2007       Local Harvest Café, est. 2008

 September 16-19^th we will feature two “Know Your Farmer” dinners per evening. 

Make your reservation now for 6:00 or 8:00 p.m. seatings.  314.772.8815 

3 courses for $25 vegetarian  $30omnivore

Wine and beer pairings available

 September 20^th join us for a BBQ and party on the patio from 3:00-8:00 p.m.

Good music, great food and lots of Schlafly!

Menu Hints below (menu may change slightly depending on produce availability)

September 16

Kakao Chocolate/Goshen Coffee
Chocolate espresso square served with ginger soup
Fresh greens with espresso vinaigrette and chocolate shavings
Lamb braised in coffee and bittersweet chocolate / spicy chili with fresh cornbread

September 17

Companion Bread Co./Centennial Farms
Pretzel wrapped sausages with house made mustard / pretzels with house made mustard
Black pepper goat cheese salad with apple butter vinaigrette
Pork meatballs with applesauce and sweet potato stratta / sweet potato stratta with apple chutney

September 18

City Seeds/Prairie Grass Farms/Edwards’ Farm
Lamb meatballs with crowder peas /crowder peas with mushroom ragout
Green bean and pecan salad
Braised lamb on fresh greens / late summer veggie roast on fresh greens

September 19

Double star/Missouri Grass-fed beef
Beef shepard’s pie/veggie shepard’s pie
Lentil salad with squash, peppers, and tomato mint dressing
Smoked beef trio with three sauces /veggie gratin with herb dressing

 

What you missed.

Mouth watering tomato salad

On Tuesday, August 25th, we had one of our monthly “Know Your Farmer” dinners – featuring the lovely produce of Earthdance Farms.

That night we heard from Molly Rockamann (founder of Earthdance), as well as watched a short film on the history of the Mueller Farm (the land in which Earthdance is now located).

Then everyone enjoyed a four course meal:

-purple tomatillo soup, with or without chicken (from Earthdance: purple tomatillos and jalapenos)

-tomato salad with genovese basil and flowers (from ED: heirloom tomatoes, basil, nasturium, bachelor buttons, and borage)

-omnivore: chicken milenese with wild argula pesto and veggie lasagne (from ED: wild argula, crocknecks, zucchini, basil)

vegetarian: squash samosa and veggie biryani (from ED: crocknecks, zucchini, swiss chard, jalapenos, tomatoes)

-melon sorbet with strawberries and sweet cinnamon basil pesto (from ED: moon and stars melon, white wonder melon, strawberries, cinnamon basil)

 

I hope you can join us for our KNOW YOUR FOOD CELEBRATION in September honoring our anniversaries (one year for the cafe and two years for Local Harvest Grocery.) 

Sept. 16-19 we will host two “Know Your Farmer” dinners per evening-6 and 8 p.m. seatings by reservation.  At least two farmers or food producers will be on hand to talk with diners and enjoy a fantastic meal prepared using fresh, local foods.  $25 vegetarian and $30 for omnivore. Wine and beer pairings are an optional addition.

On Sept. 20th we will host a big “Anniversary BBQ” at the cafe featuring live music, great food and lots of Schlafly. 

For reservations for any of the farm dinners call 314.772-8815.

 

It’s time for (healthy) lunch!

As patrons and employees of Local Harvest, we all know how important local, healthy food is. We also know that many people do not have regular access to such food. On September 7, Slow Food USA is holding a national day of action called “Time for Lunch” to get real food in schools and “with the goal of creating a world in which everyone can enjoy food that is good, clean, and fair.”

Slow Food St. Louis will be hosting a local event at the Schlafly Bottleworks on Sept. 7 from 11am-1pm. If you’d like to help volunteer for the event, including helping to promote it before the event, please contact kelly at slowfoodstl.org.

- Brian DeSmet

 

Farm Aid in the Lou

Maddie Earnest and Carolyn Mugar, Executive Director of Farm Aid

 

You’ve probably already heard that this year’s Farm Aid concert is going to be in St. Louis on Oct. 4th.  We are all very excited by this news and look forward to Farm Aid bringing more awareness to issues facing family farmers. 

We had the chance to meet the fine folks who run the Farm Aid organization at the press conference and again when they came to dinner at the cafe last night. Seriously, these folks could not be nicer or more dedicated.  They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the food–trout was a favorite, along with the cucumber bisque, shiitake bruschetta, and Jayne’s Lemon Cake.  Oh, and also a shout out to Claverach’s Chambourcin wine which we all drank with delight. 

Local Harvest Grocery and Cafe plant to help promote and be involved in anyway we can.  Yesterday was another reminder of the importance not only to keep doing what we’re doing, but to let folks know why we buy from local family farms.

More to come surely.  In the mean time please check out the website and see how you can get involved.   www.farmaid.org

yours in farming,

Maddie

 

Earth Dance Farms (Mueller Farms) and Meet the Farmer dinner

Time for another farm tour. This time the farm is in Missouri very near downtown Ferguson.  First of all if you haven’t been to Ferguson in a while, it’s definitely worth a trip to see what Ferguson has done to revitalize and highlight the area–new shops, a Saturday Farmer’s Market, and beautiful neighborhoods.

Mueller Organic Farm sits at the back of a residential neighborhood.  It is serene, picturesque and I loved the scent  released as you brush past the large patches of mint lining the road.   I enjoyed the chance too to pick a few black raspberries although my son ate them before I could even get a taste. He said they made his tummy happy, so I’ll believe mine would have been happy too.  I was so taken by the scenery and atmosphere of the farm that it was a jolt to hear the very load sound of a plane landing at Lambert  Airport a short time after we arrived.  You feel very far away from civilization when you can block out the airport.

I would never have imagined all that lay behind the thin metal cord barrier–14 acres of “some of the best soil in Missouri” according to Dave one of the men who farms on the land.  The sign that greets you out front says the Mueller Farm has been around since 1893.  And it has been organic the whole time.  The farm used to be 200 acres.  As the Mueller Family got older a lot of the acreage was sold to development.  Now, Mrs. Mueller rents out acreage to a variety of farms.  The one we originally went to visit was Earth Dance Farms.  Molly Rockamann has been our main contact and the visionary for the farm.  Earth Dance Farms is working to bring young people into farming and has apprentice farmers, work parties, music concerts, pesto dinners and tons of energy. It was wonderful to see  the vision becoming a reality.

While at the farm we met some other folks farming the land. Karrie from Red Earth Farms (we’ve sold some of her produce in the store), John  Wilkerson (farming on the property for 10 years) and Rufus Cole who says “I’ve been farming out here since the beginning” and promises this is his last year.  Molly told me he’s 80, but it’s hard to believe when looking at him.  I guess it’s all the good eating and honest work!

It is so exciting to see all the interest in farming, preserving the land and of course, sustainable farming as is practiced on the Mueller Farm.

Learn more at our “Meet the Farmer” dinner on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 7:00p.m.  We’ll feature all the delicious produce, plus you’ll get to view a short documentary about the farm.  Call 314-772-8815 to make reservations.  Cost is $35 vegetarian/vegan, $45 omnivore and $15 for optional wine pairing.

Yours in farming and living my dream of actually visiting the farms,

Maddie

Rufus Cole giving a tour of his crops.

 

Biver Farms

 

 

About a month ago I had the chance to visit Biver Farms in Edwardsville, IL.  I must admit I’m not one who readily crosses the river, but it was definitely worth it. Brett Palmer gave us a tour of the crops and that meant also a walk through some heavy mud. Biver Farms is an organic farm and they make good use of hoops to insulate early crops and row covers to decrease pests. 

I was reminded very quickly of what friggin’ hard work farming is.  Brett will be our featured Farmer at the “Meet the Farmer” dinner on June 29th. The dinner is by reservation only. But if you are lucky enough to be able to attend, be prepared to hear some great stories and learn some ins and outs of organic farming from someone who does it all year.

Beautiful heads of cabbage waiting for harvest. We'll have them in the store the week of 6/22.

Enjoy these few photos from the adventure.

-maddie

P.S. Many thanks to Brett for carrying my son for part of the tour. He worked hard to minimize the mud intake. It was partially successful!

 

beef. 4 ways.

last night was another farmer dinner – this time with Jeremy Parker and his Missouri Grass Fed Beef.

a number of avid beef eaters, armed with their sense of adventure, joined us at the cafe with Jeremy to partake in an interesting meal. i am not quite sure if these folks knew what they were getting into, but as far as i can tell they all loved it.

Jeremy spoke lovingly about his cows, his pasture, his techniques – i interrupted him a few times to explain the dishes set in front of everyone. it was something like this:

first course
kabobs with onions and pineapple, served with sauteed garlic scapes

second course
tongue pot roast with roasted garlic smashed potatoes

third course
grilled hearts with green chili bread pudding and jicama salad

forth course
mini burger served on a companion roll with mustard, horseradish sauce, and garlic scape pesto

final course
cranberry walnut Baetje Farms goat cheese with pear slices

i was thrilled to be able to use these strange cuts of meat, especially from such wonderfully delicious cows. and i was thrilled that everyone enjoyed the meal.

jeremy offered everyone a tour of his farm, i think i might just take him up on that offer.

hope to see you soon,

clara

 

Farming Was My Life

Don’t miss the free documentary screening and discussion of  ”Farming Was My Life: The Hidden Costs of CAFO’s,”  Sunday, June 7, 4-6 p.m. at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Blvd.,  St. Louis, MO.

The documentary will last about 40 minutes with discussion and community dialogue to follow.  Family farmers featured in the film will be present to answer questions and participate in the conversation.  The movie was produced by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and Violet Producations. 

Local Harvest Grocery will be there!!

You can RSVP to amys@stl-jwj.or or 314-608-3917