Overnight we received our first home food delivery, including eggs, cheese, applewood smoked bacon, a couple of steaks and other items. Unfortunately they were left in grocery cooler bags and not in the 70 qt. rolling cooler we purchased and are supposed to set out every week to keep things fresh. Nothing seemed spoiled this morning but it was disappointing.
I told you about the milkman. First time I’ve had a milkman in 40 years! We got one gallon of organic milk, in a GLASS bottle. All I need to do is rinse out the bottle and leave it out next week and they’ll hold the $1.50 deposit for my weekly standing order. Cool!
Now to the surprise. I wanted to challenge myself with fresh produce to get me out of a cooking rut. Cooking only meat is getting boring but Jim can’t eat fish and isn’t much interested in veggies (unless it’s an iceberg wedge with Thousand Island or a loaded baked potato) so… ta dah!
In this week’s first shipment, for $19.95, the coolest thing is gorgeous bunch of carrots with fluffy green tops attached, dirt and roots. Lets me know it’s local and fresh. Two lemons, one hard avocado that I’m ripening on the counter, two cucumbers, 1# of cherries, one head of iceberg lettuce and 3# of organic red onions.
I love a cold cuke soup with yogurt and lemon but Jim doesn’t, so here’s what I’m thinking. I’ve tons of eggs, what with 18 in the frig and 24 just delivered. Cold supper with ham and cheese and artisan bread, maybe homemade. Hard-cooked eggs. Fresh tomatoes. Cucumber salad (my grandmother’s recipe is on this site).
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll try a cherry clafoutis (pancake of sorts) that I haven’t made since cooking school. Right now I must get ready for my guitar lesson as I’ve been somewhat lax in practicing.
I did download some iTunes this past week to help with my lessons. More on that later. Viva local Utah milk, eggs, and organic produce! Dee
Cooking with Dee 
Perhaps pissaladiere with the onions? Onion-anchovy pizza/hors d’oeuvre. Perhaps with a sprinkling of some organic feta I have in the frig. Just an idea. Dee
ps yeah, I know about Jim and anchovies but he wouldn’t like this dish anyway. It doesn’t have meat.
I am going to start seriously searching out a raw-milk source in our neck of the woods… Alas, I think the last working dairy in S Dallas Co (Lancaster) closed some years ago.
Hey Val, The Hipless Wonder suggests asking Joe C. I can ask the foodies as well. Any ideas??? Dee
To Val,
We were able to watch Dr Smokler’s herd dispersal before we quit dairying 7 years ago. We had bought our herd bulls from him many times. I have never seen so many fancy cows, one after another, after another that milked over 100 lbs/day for 3-6-8 months running. It made me sick that we did not go prepared to buy some. They went for a song. They were beautiful but they were also HUGE!!
This sale made the TV news that night.
Dairymen all over Texas and even the nation knew of Dr Smokler. That dairy had been in the family for many decades, I’m guessing it was 60 years at least. He had been a premier breeder of holsteins and this was the last dairy in Lancaster county, TX.
I still have the sale book. The sale was held on March 25, 2000. Inside we learn that 3 generations had the goal of improving registered holsteins at Holtex farms. Urban sprawl and other considerations ended this farm. Including that Dr Smokler might have just been ready to retire! Look at the average age of the American farmer.
Many more of the north Texas counties no longer have dairies. This is actually happening all over the USA at present. Economy of scale dictates that farms become larger and larger. It is a crazy business because it is so capital and labor intensive and the farmer has NO control over the price he can command for his product. Thus the niche market for an excellent product sold locally.
By the way, we drank our own milk raw. This is generally advised against. Even if the farm family can tolerate the bacteria, everyone might not be able to. What they don’t tell you is that the bacteria counts and other potential problems are monitored very closely and NOBODY sells bad milk from the farm and gets away with it. Also, milk from clean cows, going right through a pipeline to a cooling tank, just doesn’t have the opportunity to contact much bad bacteria.
Enjoy your farm fresh products. It doesn’t get any better that that.
Greatings, Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Have a nice day
Rufor