Michael and I did some local shopping on Saturday, and while it's not as easy as finding a summer time farmer's market, it's still entirely do-able.
We went to three different businesses all within 30-45 minutes of home, Picket Fence Creamery, where we bought a dozen eggs, a pound of butter, 12 gallons of skim milk, 1 gallon of whole milk, 2 pounds of egg noodles from Amana, a gallon of cider, and a pound of ground goat meat. Jill Burkhart, the owner, said many people freeze their milk, so we decided to give it a try. I still need to buy eggs, as my hens are only just beginning to lay.
From Picket Fence we traveled a couple miles down the road to Northern Prairie Chevre, where we purchased feta, several varieties of chevre, and a bottle of Iowa wine. So far we haven't found an Iowa wine that we like, but I keep trying.
Then, we drove to Adel to Wills Family Orchard, where we purchased the most gorgeous Empire apples. I've never had this variety of apple before, but it's now one of my favorites!
All together we spent only about $127, not bad for all this yummy food.
Oh, and the goat meat?
Michael made delicious homemade pizzas for supper, one of which featured sauteed goat meat, feta and chevre, some of the last of our local frozen green peppers, and local onions. Only the olives weren't local.
The pizza was fantastic and only used 1/2 the goat meat, so we'll definitely be having this kind again. A little accident with a sprinkling of cinnamon in the cooking meat only added to the Mediterranean flair of this local meal. (Thankfully!)
3 comments:
I see you got some Snus Hill wine. I rather liked theirs when we went to the Midwest Wine Festival last year over at the DMACC Ankeny campus. You might consider going this year to try some others! I have never had goat meat. Maybe I should try it. I really need to get up to Picket Fence because now I know where Prairieland Herbs is, it isn't that far! This was a great post and shows me what is right in my own backyard that I didn't know about! Thanks!~
Great winter shopping... it really is do-able with a little planning. Empire apples are one of my fav varieties, and very versatile too - a good thing this time of year when they are one of the few fruits available.
I've frozen milk -- make sure you have room for it to expand. The plastic jug may be plastic enough to accommodate this. Also, gallons take FOREVER to thaw. Half gallons worked well for us. When one half gallon bottle was completely thawed, I immediately got a frozen one out to thaw to have it ready for when the thawed bottle emptied.
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