Springfield Farm Dinner
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: chicken sausage, dinner, Springfield Farm 1 Comment »Sometimes I still eat meat. Sometimes I still make a delicious well balanced meal off the top of my head. Most of these times N is in town. This past weekend all three stars aligned!
N and I took a trip up to Springfield Farm to visit the geese, get some eggs and pick up some meats to freeze and have for dinner.
The white wine, garlic and herb chicken sausage made it into Saturday night’s dinner.
I cooked up some millet (long lost seed) to add to a sautéed onion, garlic and 1 giant sausage mix. To finish I mixed in some fresh chopped parsley and put the entire mixed onto of a baked portabella mushroom top.
This sausage was amazing! SO much flavor to it and given their size we can probably get about 8 (4-6oz) servings out of a pack of 4. Along with our bangin’ sausage I made salad of spinach topped with crispy parsnips and a balsamic mustard dressing.
This was a awesome meal. Hands down best Saturday night meal in a long time!
Side note: When I cut back on my meat intake to maybe once a week, I was worried that my system would react poorly to meat occasionally making an appearance. I had heard stories about people’s bodies freaking going in both directions (veg->meat, meat->veg). I am happy to say so far, so good! Knock on wood.
Springfield Farm
Posted: January 23, 2011 Filed under: food, local | Tags: bacon, cinnamon raisin bread, eggs, Local, pasture raised, Springfield Farm 1 Comment »Do you know where your food comes from? Specifically your meat if you chew on animals?
Well after reading Eating Animals and confirming with many other resources I have decided that if I am going to eat any meat I want to to see the animals, confirm their living situation and know about where and how they are processed. (I do not expect everyone to be able to do this in their lives. We are lucky to have farms near to us in Maryland that allow us this luxury)
I know this seems like a tall order, but it was only 40 years ago that we didn’t have to worry about this issue because we didn’t have CAFO (centralized animal feed operations) where animals and workers are treated poorly and dangerous health concerns are created.
Nick and I traveled about 20min north to Springfield Farm.
We pulled up to a small house and saw goats running free and chickens hanging around their coop. The owner was shooting off his back deck and Lucky the duck was there to greet us.
I didn’t ask why her name was Lucky, but I am guessing it is because she will never have to give her life for a duck breast. Maybe she is a layer? Either way she was the most interesting duck I had ever seen with her green beak and cow colored feathers.
Inside the small shop, that is really one of the garage ports of the home, there are a bunch of freezers and refrigeration cases filled with meats, cheeses and milks. There is also a huge table in the middle full of eggs of all sizes and colors. I used to think that frozen meat was less superior, but now I understand that that “freshness” idea was placed in my head by marketing and a frozen steak tastes pretty darn good when it is thawed out correctly.
So what did Nick and I go home with?
Smoked bacon, flank steak and a dozen large farm eggs. ($15 if you want to put a price on your health)
I noticed that the meats were processed and packed at another location so when we got home I looked up Wagner Meats and found that they are a family owned and run Maryland processor. I liked knowing that the farm stuck with a small processor in Maryland because why raise an animal with care only to send it off to a mass slaughter?
So what did we make?
We threw the steak in the freezer for a special dinner and cooked up a special brunch this morning.
Local happy bacon, farm fresh local eggies and homemade cinnamon raisin bread.
Could you think of anything better?
