More on Local Cheese

Hopefully people aren’t getting tired about local cheesemakers. Here’s a link to my latest article. This one is about Shellbark Hollow Dairy, outside of West Chester, PA. Click here to read the article.

I’m hoping they just screwed up the title on the online version. I haven’t seen the printed copy yet, but I’m pretty certain that I didn’t write anything about the role of oats in milk production.

Something I didn’t know about Olive Oil

I’ve never thought to chug olive oil before.  Sure, in my household, the speed at which we consume extra-virgin olive oil makes it seem like we’re pouring it down our throats: a dip for French bread, a topping for pasta (with garlic, capers, and a little crushed red pepper, of course), salad dressing—my girlfriend even uses it to make popcorn.

Published!

The true reason I started this blog was to provide some writing to convince editors to buy into my pitches. Apparently, it worked, and I have an article in print.

Farming in Kensington

One of these days I’m going to have enough free time to resume putting up original content up here. Until then, I’m going to have to resort to providing links to relevant articles. Are they always going to come from the New York Times? Let’s just say it’s my first resource when it comes to squandering my time online. Today’s example:

Amid the tightly packed row houses of North Philadelphia, a pioneering urban farm is providing fresh local food for a community that often lacks it, and making money in the process.

Greensgrow, a one-acre plot of raised beds and greenhouses on the site of a former steel-galvanizing factory, is turning a profit by selling its own vegetables and herbs as well as a range of produce from local growers, and by running a nursery selling plants and seedlings.

They also do honey. This is the type of shit I’ll be writing about in my monthly column in the Philadelphia Weekly, starting tomorrow. But it looks like I got scooped on this one.

Rising Food Prices: Who’s the Villain?

Food prices continue to rise in the U.S., as well as around the world, and our President has evidently lumped some of the blame on India. The New York Times reports:

After a news conference in Missouri on May 2, he was quoted as saying of India’s burgeoning middle class, “When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”

Together at Last

I had no idea Dungeoness Crab even existed until I moved into my present apartment.  Even with my current knowledge that it’s a large crab found in the Pacific, it still ranks nowhere near Beer and Breakfast on my list of necessities.

Not that I’ve ever had breakfast at the Garden Court Eatery either.  Let’s be honest- its sole value in my life is limited to purveying beer, slightly stale kaiser rolls, and the occasional pint of Häagen-Dazs.  That’s convenience.

The Corned Beef Special

That’s a lot of meat.

From middle school and through high school, my family would spend Sunday dinner at my grandfather’s house. Grandpop still lived in the house in which my mother grew up; a fifteen minute drive from our home.

Dinner was a low-key affair. Sometimes there would be a pot of chicken soup that grandpop had recently cooked. But the core of the meal were cold cuts from the deli case at the Acme and rye and pumpernickel from Greenberg’s Bakery (no longer in existence) on Haverford Avenue. Grandpop certainly didn’t keep kosher, but all the same, there never was any ham. Instead, we would eat beef salami, turkey breast, and corned beef. There was generally some Jarlsberg light or Alpine Lace Swiss around the table, but I didn’t eat much cheese back then. And we also had some sides: potato salad and coleslaw.

An Uncommon Hot Sauce

Clancy’s Fancy Hot Sauce

Frankly, I don’t miss too much about living in Ann Arbor. I did live in a wonderful house, and had a great group of friends. But with most other things: the harsh winters, self-flagellation, and same circuit of four bars- I’m happy to have moved on.

The Ranch Steak

Get the cardiologist on the line

This cut of beef, pictured above as an integral part of Sunday’s breakfast, is a bit of a mystery. Procured from a Pennsylvania purveyor at the Clark Park Farmer’s Market on Saturday, the “Ranch Steak” is the ideal size for the “steak” half of the classic “steak and eggs” combination. Grass-fed and dry-aged, the steak had a nice degree of marbling. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, cooked it for about five minutes in a pan over medium-high heat, then put it under the broiler to cook the other side, until the steak reached medium rare.

Ballpark Food Redux

Rick Nichols, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, also found the concept of Dollar Dog Night noteworthy. He also had the wherewithal to make it to the first such event of the season and was less than ecstatic with what he found: