Locally Grown - Availability for June 18, 2014n

Hey Local Food Lovers,

As usual I have a feast of stories and meals I’d love to share with you this week, and I probably won’t have time for them all. But before I get into any of that let me mention a few reminders.

We currently have two great meat vendors at Locally Grown, BG Farms and O’Hana farms. BG Farms has been with us almost since the beginning, We met Lynda Brady the farmer for BG Farms through Chuck Mashburn (one of our founders and the Tiger Market Manager) since they both sold to Athens Locally Grown. Sustainable meat producers are still few and far between in our area and Lynda was unique in that at different times she might have beef, pork and chicken products. She’s also located pretty far from the rest of us, in Madison, GA. However, since several of our growers still sell to Athens Locally Grown every Thursday, it’s a perfect way to do a little distribution collaboration. After orders for BG Farms are placed for our market Friday through Sunday, Chuck or someone else goes to pick them up the following Thursday and keeps them in a freezer. That’s why orders of meat from BG Farms aren’t delivered to market until the following Wednesday. Over the last four years I can’t guess how many cow’s, pigs and chickens we’ve transported to customers in our area, but it’s been a lot. In fact we just invested in a new freezer to store what we expect may be some increased meat sales. They are great products and so worth the extra wait it requires to get them. We hope you’ll give it a try. Every once in a while some of the more common cuts we’ll keep up here and you’ll actually get them the week you order so don’t be surprised if you get lucky with your order.

O’hana Farms started selling their pork in the last year or so and everything I’ve had from them is simply terrific. There are some really interesting details about the way O’hana raises and feeds their hogs that really influence the unique flavors of the pork, but I’ll have to save that full story for another day. You’ll notice they also provide some helpful hints on how to cook and prepare some of their more unique cuts of meat. These tips are so useful at getting us out of our routines cooking the same thing over and over again. I love any tips that growers provide in their product descriptions of their favorite ways to prepare specific foods. It’s a great way to experience new flavors and you get to know the tastes of the farmer in the process. We all have unique tastes in this market, and learning and sharing how to prepare foods is part of the experience.

Speaking of that, I’m gonna mention my favorite way to cook fennel since I’ve been enjoying all weekend. Fennel is one of my personal favorite crops to grow, and it’s one of the more interesting to learn how to incorporate into different styles of cooking. If you have a dynamite dish with fennel, or any of the products you’re enjoying lately please post it to our facebook page

Ok, here’s the dish. It’s called Moroccan Spiced Chicken and Fennel.

1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups fennel, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fennel leaves, chopped
1 medium red onion, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed but not neccessary)
1/3 cup fat-free chicken broth
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

1 Combine spices with pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Season chicken to coat both sides.

2 Preheat large nonstick skillet, add olive oil. Cook chicken breasts about 5 minutes each side. Remove chicken and keep warm.

3 Add the fennel and onions to the pan and saute for 7 mnutes or so. The fennel should be tender but not mushy. If the pan appears to be too dry, add a tablespoon of water. Should be enough to moisten without steaming the vegetables.

4 Add juice, broth and the last 1/4 teasppon salt and bring to a boil for about 1 minute. Add constarch mixed in 1 tablespoon of water. Stir until it just begins to thicken, about 2-3 minutes.

5 Add chicken and chopped fennel , cook 2 more minutes.

6 Chicken and fennel and onions goes really well on top of rice with sauce spooned on top.

It’s the bomb. Fennel and the sweet citrus flavor of the orange juice really complement each other. You can double up on some of the spices if you’d like as the Moroccoan flavors are subdued by the fennel and oj, so don’t be afraid to be bold with the spices if you like them.

I also wanted to mention, everyone should CHECK BACK TO LOCALLY GROWN more than once over the weekend and into MONDAY. Since we extended the ordering times earlier this year (now Friday to Monday rather than what used to be just Sunday to Monday) lots and lots of farmers add items later in the weekend after they’ve had time to check their fields and realize that something is ready to go. We’ve got lots of new items this week and several of them were added after Friday night. Things like our first tomatoes (unfortunately sold out already), cucumbers, and napa cabbages. So even if you place an order on Friday, check back on Sunday and Monday as their may be something special waiting for you.

We had a great time at our FIRST GAINESVILLE pick-up day. We want to thank our 15 first customers for being there from the very beginning! Help us spread the word! We may go ahead and send out a press release in the next week or so now. We feel pretty confident that our new setup is gonna work great and we can now start spreading the word far and wide.

Here’s what the new pickup looks like:

Well there’s much more I’d love to get into but that’s probably enough for tonight.

Hope you had a great weekend and don’t forget to……

EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
Chuck in Rabun
and Teri and Andrew too!