I found another dairy delivery service in the Willamette Valley. Mr. Milkman, an independent distributor of Alpenrose Dairy, serves Newberg, Canby, Stayton, Turner, Aumsville, Keizer, Salem, Hubbard, Aurora, Tigard, Shaw, Macleay and Sherwood. If any of you out there are already customers of Mr. Milkman, please comment and let us know how the service and products are!
Lard… I don’t think I’ve ever bought the stuff. Growing up, we had Crisco in the house, but I don’t think I’ve ever purchased Crisco in my entire adult life, opting to use regular butter or healthier oils for the rare bit of cooking or baking that I did. The connotations of lard have always been that it’s so bad for you. Pure pig fat, OMG!! But the reality is, it’s the hydrogenated aspects of lard and solid vegetable oils sold in stores that you want to stay away from. If it’s on a shelf instead of refrigerated, I tend to avoid. (We found one – expensive – exception when we were looking for something to season our cast iron pans. Spectrum Naturals makes a vegetable shortening from palm oil that is non-hydrogenated.) Plain old lard stored in the fridge has the healthy fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, as well...
I made my own butter this week and I’ve been insufferably pleased with myself ever since. There’s something so satisfying about it, and it’s fantastically easy. Now, you don’t save any money by doing this unless you have a milk-producing animal, I guess! If you can get cream for little to no money, then this is hugely economical. Otherwise, not really. I’m lucky that I can purchase good butter from a dairy, where 1 lb costs the same as a quart of cream (both natural products, with no stabilizers, emulsifiers, additives, etc.) I’m not sure exactly how much butter would come from a quart of cream, I’ll have to plan to weigh it out someday. But, anyway, even if there’s no real cost savings… there’s still that satisfaction of making it myself, turning cream into butter and buttermilk. I followed the diy recipe on this “Butter through the Ages”...
The other day I was making homemade polenta and wanted to add in some Parmesan cheese. The stuff I had on hand had gone a little too far over to the fuzzy side, though, so I substituted some Cinco Esquinas cheese from local cheese company La Mariposa. This was my first time trying anything from La Mariposa, and it was really good! Cinco Esquinas is a semi-hard cheese made with cultured raw milk. I found it at Ray’s Food Place in Albany. They have a nice little cheese section going on at Ray’s, by the way. Want to make polenta from all local (Oregon) ingredients? Here’s the basis I used for a baked version, from All Recipes: Ingredients 2 cups milk (Noris Dairy) 2 cups chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock (use homemade) 1 cup yellow cornmeal (Bob’s Red Mill) 1 cup shredded semi-hard cheese such as Cinco Esquinas (La...
… I’m just trying to support local businesses! Yeah, that’s it. Entirely selfless. Don’t you believe me? Shoot. Well, anyway, have you seen the Bread & Bakeries page lately? I added three links in recent months: Rocket Queen Cupcakes, Sweet Things Bakery & Deli, and Jillicious Desserts. I’ve enjoyed baked goods from all but Jillicious (which I will soon remedy), and they are wonderful. Check them out, and support your local baker! (Photo credit: cacaobug on Flickr)
Here are some quick links for the week: Disappointingly, the Salem City Council rejected ordinances that would have allowed chickens within city limits. I wonder if the opponents of the plan have ever actually visited any normal backyard chicken coops. Their arguments seem to be based heavily on fear-mongering. Wine Country Thanksgiving –More than 140 wineries and tasting rooms in the Willamette Valley will be open during Thanksgiving Weekend (most open 11am-5pm, November 27-29, but hours may vary, so call ahead). Meet winemakers, experience special tastings and enjoy specialty food and live entertainment. Click here for a complete list of participating wineries and tasting rooms. I made sweet roasted rosemary acorn squash this week, and it was fabulous. You should try it immediately. Go ahead, I’ll wait here… Heavenly Harvest Farm in Corvallis is having their Harvest Festival through Saturday. The College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU is once...
This week I got my second delivery from Noris Dairy, and I’m a happy customer! I’m combining orders with a friend who stops by my house after work to pick up her items from the cooler on my front porch. We did this to more easily reach the $18 minimum purchase amount, and it means only one stop for the driver. We also decided against a fixed, weekly delivery and instead just place an order every two weeks. We take care of the whole transaction online. I can place the order through their website and pay via Paypal, and then I send my friend an e-mail with her total, and she reimburses me via Paypal as well. Very convenient and quick! No rummaging around for checks, which I really like. So far my husband and I have tried the 2% milk, chocolate milk, Monterey Jack cheese, and regular salted...
I added an entry to the 1/4 cow page — scroll down to today’s date.
Flipping through the October, 2009 issue of Bon Appétit magazine, this little item about home milk delivery caught my eye. Curious if there were any dairies which provide home delivery in Oregon, I hit up Google. I found one and I have to say, I really thought there would be more. It seems like such an Oregon thing to do. But, anyway, I found certified organic Noris Dairy, based in Crabtree and providing service to several cities throughout the Willamette Valley. Hormone and antibiotic free, the cows at Noris graze on pasture year-round. Items available for delivery include milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter. Click here for distribution areas and days. Aside from the convenience, I find the idea of home dairy delivery a sort of romantic notion. Glass milk bottles, cream rising to the top. Supporting a local farming family and healthy farming practices. I’d love to hear from...
Yesterday I read this article from AFP entitled “Americans turn to backyard chickens for food security“. It was a good article, talking about how the sale of chicks is up in Idaho and Washington states, as well as Oregon. It touched on the misconception that raising chickens for the eggs is going to be a less expensive option than store-bought eggs. And then the article just crashed and burned at the end: All contention aside, experts say there is little nutritional difference between homegrown and commercial eggs. Colors in the shell are different, with the bulk of commercial hens producing white-shelled eggs and backyard varieties everything from brown to light green, and pigments in the feed of backyard flocks tend to deepen the yellow of their yolks. WHAT? What contention? What experts? Who? Why? How? Granted, this wasn’t the focus of the article. The focus was food security. (To...
