Krohn Conservatory's 1st Annual Setting Your Holiday Table

Meet your local farmers and food producers from 4p-7p on Monday December 20th at the
Krohn Conservatory for a Holiday farmers market, food sampling and recipe give away. This will be a great opportunity to purchase fresh, locally grown produce and handmade specialty foods for your holiday table.

Who will be there…

Carriage House Farm
CORV Local Food Guide
Cox Family Farm
Dolce Vita Café
Fab Ferments
Grateful Grahams
Harmony Hill Vineyard
Lucky John’s Market
Napoleon Ridge Farm
Our Garden Runs Through It
Sugar Valley Farm
Wind Dance Farm

Chef John Clark Jr. of Lucky John’s Slow Market on Woodburn
Ave. will be hosting a live food demo using local produce from the
holiday farmers market.

Eat Local Right Now - December

Time flies this time of year. It feels like just moments ago we were cleaning the dishes from Thanksgiving Dinner and now I'm planning market trips for Christmas. So, what does local eating look like now?

In the Garden
Our garden is quiet under a blanket of snow at the moment. The first of the seed catalogs arrived in the mail this week. I love January days sitting under a blanket, sipping tea and dreaming of the spring garden as I catalog shop for seeds... but that is January, for us this December all is quiet on the garden front.

At Market
I continue to be amazed at what I can find at market right now. Last trip I was still picking up onions and potatoes, apples and carrots as well as salad greens freshly harvested from the greenhouse.

My next trips to market will include gift shopping, I look forward to visiting the booths of craftsman, potters, bakers and the chocolateier.

Now is the time to shop markets for your holiday meals and gifts. Wyoming Avenue Farmers' Market does winter orders, place your order by 6pm Today, December 17th, for delivery on the 21st. Today is the last Lettuce Eat Well Market of 2010 (though they'll be back in January). This weekend you can shop Findlay Market. Findlay also has hours during the week. A special one day farmers' market will be held at the Krohn Conservatory on Monday from 4-7pm. Next week you can also visit the Northside Farmers' Market on Wednesday and the College Hill Farm Market on Thursday.

In the Kitchen
This morning I had butternut squash soup for breakfast made with local onions and squash from the back yard. Local eggs are a staple for us. We've had those with local cheese, local bacon, local spinach and onions, local sausage and I even hacked up some of a frozen local red pepper to add to an egg dish yesterday morning. Local meats are served at our table and we've had chicken and beef lately. We still have berries in our freezer from the spring and we've had strawberry smoothies and blueberry muffins as of late. A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed a yummy black bean and sweet potato chili. The onions, garlic and sweet potatoes were all local and after helping with the black bean harvest at Carriage House Farm in late November I feel hopeful that the next time we eat this dish we'll have it with local black beans, too.

For/ From the Root Cellar
We're still enjoying garlic from our own harvest in June. I've been adding onions to the root cellar from local farmers buying some for our weekly use and extra for when they run out. We still have some apples but I'm planning on buying a lot more this weekend and on my list of things to do is to make applesauce and can it in small mason jars so we can have individual serving sizes ready to go. We still have squash from our backyard and local growers in the root cellar but I hope to add a few more from markets this week. We've been eating potatoes as fast as we buy them but I'm hoping to stock up just a bit if I find them at market again.

It feels good to remember how local food shows up in our lives as the year ends and plans are made for the new year... looking forward to January garden dreaming, in the meantime Happy Holidays!

Cooking Class

Turner Farm and Laura Robinson will hold a hands-on, farm-to-table cooking class in the Meshewa kitchen (adjacent to Turner Farm) on January 8th, 10AM to 1PM. This is the first in a series of classes that will focus on basic cooking techniques using seasonal ingredients picked fresh from the farm.

In this class, you will learn the ins-and-outs of two fundamental kitchen recipes: a pie dough and a custard. Once mastered, these two classic components will become invaluable tools in your kitchen repertoire and work in a variety of applications. In this class, we will combine the dough and the custard to form a lovely quiche!

Weather permitting, we will start by picking the greens that will be used in the dish. We will then make our way to the kitchen to make the dough from scratch and assemble the custard. We will end by enjoying the meal together.

Space is limited, so please email Sally @ turnerfarm@zoomtown.com if you are interested in joining. The cost of the class is $35 and a check must be received by January 5th to reserve your spot in the class. Checks are payable to Turner Farm and can be mailed to Turner Farm, 7400 Given Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45243.