Mmm. That is a locally grown and butchered Delmonico steak, hot off the grill. The cow is from a farm run by a family with a young child and I buy it directly from the mom at the farmers market. I. Love. That.

Frankly, I don’t write about eating locally raised and grown food nearly as often as I should. It’s something that I am pretty passionate about and really take to heart. Each week, I shop at at least one, often two, farmers markets. In the summertime, I rarely buy anything at the grocery store.

There are so many reasons I support eating locally. For one, the food just tastes better. Produce in the grocery store is often grown thousands of miles away, picked before it’s peak and flown in. That’s why you will see rows of green bananas and piles of hard plums. You aren’t supposed to pick these things before they naturally ripen, but that is what happens. As a result, we pay for it in taste.

By eating locally, I am also buying from growers who drive mere miles to sell their meats, vegetables, fruits and herbs. It’s less impact on the environment. Furthermore, instead of handing over my dollars to a mega-market with headquarters in parts far away, the people who receive my money are literally right in front of me. My local economy can’t avoid being helped by that.

But I have to admit, it’s a hard road to eating locally for most meals. You need to know where to buy staples, where to locate specific needs and more. My progress as a local eater — and I am far from perfect at it — has been years in the making.

A few years ago, I really wanted to transform my family’s eating habits and attempt an all-local diet. I searched and made notes about where to find certain foods, restaurants that cooked with local ingredients and markets that were family owned and run locally. The one problem I had was locating local, small producers of meat.

To be fair, I found a local bacon, that is manufactured in nearby Torrington, Connecticut. It’s called Nodine’s Apple Smoke Flavored Bacon and is sold in some local markets like Caraluzzi’s. It’s among my very favorite varieties ever — a thick cut, hearty and meaty bacon that is packed with flavor. It’s crispy bliss.

But in terms of beef, chicken, pork and other meats, I came up short.

Then, earlier this summer, I happened upon a fellow Connecticut food blogger’s site, Late Bloomers Farm. It was one of those life changing finds where you are both awestuck and excited to have found exactly what you were searching for. It was like an answer to my local-eating prayers. On the site is a list of local purveyors, farms, farmers markets and more. It made up where my searching via Google and Local Harvest failed.

Since then, I have found several other Connecticut food and life bloggers like Living in a Local Zone and Local Food Rocks. (Psst! I have a list in progress on my Examiner page — did I mention that I am the Danbury Food Examiner too? I started about a month ago.)

After learning about Ox Hollow Farm on the aforementioned Late Bloomers Farm, I tracked down their booth at the Bethel Farmers Market. After one dinner of beef kabobs with their meat, I was hooked. And anyone who eats kabobs knows that the meat is notoriously tough. But it wasn’t true of this meat. Grilled up with a little barbecue sauce (which I brushed on at the very end of cooking), it was tender and juicy. Totally craveworthy.

I’ve since been making my way through their other cuts. The sweet Italian sausage, which I had a bite of at the market, was enough to make you swoon — and I rarely eat sausage. And their Delmonico steak was probably the best steak I have ever eaten. Anywhere. Bar none. The heavily marbling and thick cut grilled up to perfection, and the resulting meat was so smooth, tender, juicy and flavorful. I could be ultra-cliche and say that it was like budda … and I wouldn’t be just saying it.

Do you eat local? Why do you do it?

One of my goals for this year is to extend our local eating for as long into the winter as we can. I’ve done this hear and there in the past, putting up jams and relishes and freezing pestos and sauces, but this year I want a more comprehensive effort. As fruits and vegetables hit their peak, the kids and I will be gathering them, making some for the family to eat now and processing the rest to be stored for the winter months. First up: strawberries.

After picking strawberries last weekend, I quickly set about to use all the berries we brought home. When you pick as much as I did (somewhere between 10-12 lbs of berries … mmmm!), you have to do something with them quickly so that they don’t go to waste.

I immediately started work on jam for the winter (and a little for the summer too), which is a two-day process for my favorite canned version. About 12 cups of strawberries went into jam making using two recipes — four half-pints of my favorite fresh strawberry jam recipe and about a cup of fresh strawberry jam using a Cooking Light recipe. The Cooking Light recipe cooked way faster than it was supposed to, so that came out much thicker than I anticipated. But it’s still very tasty.

Next came some strawberry sauce, which we’ve been eating on pancakes and waffles all week. In fact, the picture above is the kids eating waffles with strawberry sauce on the front porch. Mmm.

Finally, I froze about eight cups of berries for the winter months. Locally grown strawberries taste so much better than the ones you buy in the store, so freezing local berries means that we can have fantastic tasting berries all year wrong … and not settle for what’s available. At first blush, I questioned whether this would be enough berries to last through the winter — and truth be told, I am still playing with the idea of picking some more — but I realized that we will also be storing peaches, apples, raspberries, blueberries and more (if all goes according to plan!), so we will have a big variety to eat from and don’t necessarily need tons of one type of fruit.

What do you think? Would you store more than eight cups of strawberries, given the opportunity?

How to Freeze Fresh Strawberries

1. Wash and hull the strawberries.

2. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper, making sure that the waxy side is facing up. Place the strawberries hulled side down on the baking sheet in a single layer. Make sure that the berries don’t touch.

3. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and let freeze overnight. Transfer frozen berries to a resealable plastic bag and return to the freezer for storage. Make sure to label the bag with the date and contents.

Recipes for Fresh Strawberries

• Strawberries and Cream Whole Wheat Crepes at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Whipped Strawberry Cream at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Kiwi Fool at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Sauce at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette at FitSugar
• Fresh Strawberry and Ricotta Tart at Serious Eats
• Joan Ohm’s Fresh Strawberry Pie at Culinate
• Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Centers at Coconut & Lime
• Fresh Strawberry Scones at The Way the Cookie Crumbles
• Fresh Strawberry Tartlets at The Providence Journal

I’ve met the chicken that laid the egg I had for this lunch. I know the two farmers who grew the radishes and the lettuce too. That’s local.

Shawn looked at me a little funny when I suggested a nice mixed green salad (red leaf lettuce from Shortt’s Farm and Garden Center in Sandy Hook and romaine lettuce from Smith’s Acres in Niantic) with maple roasted bacon (store bought bacon, Trader Joe’s Vermont Maple Syrup) and a poached egg (Shortt’s). He declined.

So, I threw a steak on the grill for him . . . and still served him the salad, minus the egg plus the meat. He said it was a great lunch.

But, he really missed out. Turns out that the warm poached egg with a nice runny yolk, is great on the greens with the sweet bacon and a drizzle of Italian dressing. Mmm.

I threw in the radishes for good measure — Jim Shortt, who in the interest of full disclosure is my cousin’s husband, said he’d never had cooked radishes. I said that he must try them. Now. And he did, since I ran some over to him . . . Wonder what he thought?

Want to try this yourself? Simply wash two cups of mixed lettuce greens per person and plate. Top with maple roasted bacon, broken into pieces (two strips per person), radishes (about 1/2 cup, cooked), and a poached egg (or sliced steak, if you prefer). Drizzle with Italian dressing and serve.

Balsamic Sauteed Radishes
Maple Roasted Bacon
Poached Egg
Mixed Greens Salad

You might pay lip-service to liking the concept of eating locally. You might tout the availability of locally grown farm produce, fresh breads and the like. But unless you are actually going to the farmer’s market and shopping it regularly, you aren’t doing anything. And worse, it’s going to put that farmer’s market out of business.

Think I’m kidding?

Here in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, there are two farmer’s markets: the Village Farmer’s Market on Sundays and the Organic Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays. I’ve never been to the Tuesday market due to timing — it’s pretty hard to get to the 2-6 p.m. market when you work an hour away. But the Sunday market? I am a devout goer.

This year, I’ve been thrilled to see more people attending regularly. And it’s been absolutely wonderful to be able to do a good portion of my weekly shopping in the one, close, central location. I buy clams almost every week from Ed and Laurie Popadic of Pepe’s Cream of The Crop, LLC, bread and fresh mozzarella from a Norwalk-based bakery, and vegetables from Joe Smith of Smith’s Acres in Niantic. There is also a great soap maker — Goat Boy Soaps — that visits as well, and if I needed soap weekly, that would be a weekly stop too.

The problem? The vendors say that they just aren’t making enough money to justify their drives to market. Those same gas prices that are torturing anyone with a set of four wheels are going to drive vendors away from this — finally — thriving market.

That is, unless the good people of Newtown and Sandy Hook get off their hides and join me in shopping the farmer’s markets regularly. Consider this your call to action, neighbors. Get out there and buy. Buy some eggs, buy some produce, buy, buy, buy. And guess what? It goes to a person you can see, not some supermarket chain. It lets us continue to eat locally.

Think it’s too expensive? It’s not. I spend between $30 and $50 there each week and buy enough for lunches and dinners for at least one week. Plus, with the addition of eggs, it can take care of dinner too.

I will be devastated if the vendors stop coming. Last year was a tough year for the Sunday farmer’s market with just clams and a local jam and relish maker most weeks. Although I kept going, there just wasn’t much to buy. And that is sad.

Our local paper, The Newtown Bee, covered opening day of the market and talked about the plethora of vendors. Personally, I think they should be back out there, covering this story: the story of how the market can’t survive unless more people start going . . .

Pesto whole wheat penne and baked caprese salad.

Need I say more?

This photo is from last week . . . I haven’t snapped any of this week’s foods yet. Nonetheless, this was another hardy local meal — cept for the pasta, which wasn’t local. I resisted the urge to splurge on the superb fresh mozzarella and pesto again at this week’s farmer’s market. I am trying to keep it to one splurge a week — maybe that will be next week? That way, the splurges are special and don’t end up being wasted.

While inspecting the lettuce heads, I heard a familiar voice wafting through the stand. The farmer, a white-bearded man with kind eyes, was chatting with another local farmer — a woman with long sandy hair and freckles. She held a baby on her hip and laughed in the hearty, easy way she has since childhood. No, I am not making assumptions, she happens to be my cousin . . . Small town. So, of course I yelled over, “Hi, cousin!” It’s a phrase that has come into our vernacular in recent years. Her mother says it, her husband to my mother . . . just one of those things I guess.

Small town or not, it’s nice to see a sense of community forming at the farmer’s market this year that I haven’t seen in the past. The clam guy talks to the other vendors, complimenting one’s big, juicy, red tomatoes and recommending another’s delicious tarts . . . It’s nice to see.

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This week’s purchases:

2 tomatoes (plus a half dozen seconds that the farmer gave me)
1 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch Swiss chard
a handful of garlic scrapes
1 bunch radishes
about 3 cups baby spinach
1 pint strawberries
1 loaf rosemary bread
2 dozen clams

Total:$35

Apples, apples, apples. My apple supply from my recent picking binge is finally dwindling. PHEW! I am hoping to get a bit more out of it this week and then all the apple cooking in my house will be over for the winter.

Ever wonder what apples are good for specific purposes? Here’s a primer:

Sauces (like applesauce):

• Braeburn
• Cortland
• Empire
• Granny Smith
• Gravenstein
• Greening
• Ida Red
• Jersey Rose
• Jonagold
• Jonathan
• Rome Beauty
• Staymen

Pie:

• Cortland
• Gravenstein
• Greening
• Ida Red
• Jonagold
• Macoun
• Melrose
• Matsu
• Paula Red
• Rome Beauty
• Staymen

Other Baking:

• Cortland
• Granny Smith
• Greening
• Ida Red
• Jonagold
• Niagara
• Rome Beauty
• Wine Sap

Juice/Cider:

• Granny Smith
• Gala
• Gravenstein
• Jonathan

As I have mentioned before, apples are also very good for you. They have good amounts of vitamin C and calcium . . . so it certainly doesn’t hurt to munch on one unadulterated onces in a while.

These apples are good for eating:

• Braeburn
• Burgundy
• Cortland
• Empire
• Gala
• Ida Red
• Jonagold
• Macoun
• Macintosh
• Matsu
• Niagara
• Paula Red
• Red Delicious

There are many more varieties than this, of course, so these aren’t all-inclusive lists.

For this pie, I used a mix of Ida Red, Jonagold, and Staymen (with perhaps an Empire or two thrown in). I like to mix up the flavors when I am baking and tend to prefer a higher sweet to tart ratio. But that’s just me.

I have to admit, although this is my recipe, I was a bit surprised that I called for eight cups of sliced apples for one pie. It certainly sounds like a lot. But, fortunately, when I doubled the recipe and made two pies, it was the perfect amount. Just FYI – be sure to use a deep dish pie crust like Oronoque Orchards.

1 good quality pie crust (I like Oronoque Orchards)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
dash of salt
8 cups peeled and sliced apples (about 1/4 inch thick)
1/2 tbsp vanilla

Crumb topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup firm butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in apples.

Pour apple combination into the pie crust, making them slightly higher in the center than on the sides. Sprinkle vanilla over the top of the pie.

Place pie in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar for the crumb topping. Cut in the butter and mix until crumbly.

Remove pie from the oven and sprinkle crumb topping over the apples. Place pie back in the oven and cook for an additional 30-35 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm…with vanilla bean ice cream.
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This in-season post is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. WHB is turning 2! this month and Kalyn is celebrating. This week’s WHB is being hosted by Haalo at Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. Check Haalo’s site tomorrow for a roundup of great recipes.

Fall has descended on us here in the northeast. One minute we were lamenting our summer-like days and the next we were digging through closets for sweaters. It’s such a relief to not have the hum of air conditioners be the soundtrack for my life anymore. In fact, with any luck, the air conditioners will have been removed and stored for the winter by the time I get home from work today (thank you Shawn!).

Meanwhile, I think I bought WAY more apples than I thought I did. I have made a batch of applesauce that’s canned and stored until we want it. Another batch, that has just a touch of honey and cinnamon was made last night for enjoying this week. I’ve also made two apple cakes — one is already in the freezer, awaiting its trip to the FoodSaver. And my countertop still overflows with apples. Tonight I will whip up two apple pies – one to eat and one to store. And I think Shawn might transform some of the apples into fresh apple juice today. Mmmm. But I am not sure that will even put a dent in the pounds and pounds and pounds of apples that I lugged back from the orchard this weekend.

So what else should I do with these apples? Suggestions please!

Did you know that the old adage “An apple a day will keep the doctor away,” isn’t just a saying? Apples are low in calories but contain good amounts of calcium and vitamin C – be sure to eat the skin though, as that’s were most of the nutrition lies.

Anyway, apple cake. This recipe is a cinch to double (just use two cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until cake tester — you know, a toothpick or a knife — comes out clean). A note on the batter: it’s going to be thick so you’ll probably have to spoon it into the pan(s). And be sure to grease well.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups sliced and peeled apples

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease an 8″ round cake pan.

Stir together flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until well combined. Add egg and continue to beat. Slowly mix in dry ingrediant mix, followed by vanilla. Finally, stir in apple slices.

Pour into greased cake pan and level gently. Place in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake from pan and cool on a rack

TO SERVE: drizzle with caramel or top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

And you gotta love that this was made with local apples that we picked ourselves at Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, Conn., this weekend. Yay for local eating! And psst! If you go to Blue Jay, be sure to stop in the store and pick up some of their addicting cider donuts. MMmmmmmmm.

1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
12 medium apples (I used a mix of Ida Red and Empire)

In a large and heavy pot, combine the water, lemon juice, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Stir until well combined.

Next, prepare the apples. Peal, core and cut them into chunks. Mix each chopped apple into the pot as you finish cutting to prevent browning.

When all the apples are cut and mixed into the pot, turn on the stove to medium heat. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until apples are soft. Remove from heat.

Use a potato masher (the kind with a flat bottom) to mash the apples into the juices. Store as desired. These can be refrigerated for a few days, frozen or canned.

To Can: Spoon the applesauce into five hot, scalded 1/2 pint containers leaving 1/2 inch of headroom. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes and then let cool on a rack or heat-proof plate before storing.

And you gotta love that this was made with local apples that we picked ourselves at Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, Conn., this weekend. Yay for local eating! And psst! If you go to Blue Jay, be sure to stop in the store and pick up some of their addicting cider donuts. MMmmmmmmm.

1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
12 medium apples (I used a mix of Ida Red and Empire)

In a large and heavy pot, combine the water, lemon juice, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Stir until well combined.

Next, prepare the apples. Peal, core and cut them into chunks. Mix each chopped apple into the pot as you finish cutting to prevent browning.

When all the apples are cut and mixed into the pot, turn on the stove to medium heat. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until apples are soft. Remove from heat.

Use a potato masher (the kind with a flat bottom) to mash the apples into the juices. Store as desired. These can be refrigerated for a few days, frozen or canned.

To Can: Spoon the applesauce into five hot, scalded 1/2 pint containers leaving 1/2 inch of headroom. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes and then let cool on a rack or heat-proof plate before storing.