Arcadia Farms

Freezing strawberries is easy peasy but there are a couple of steps you can take to optimize the outcome. The method I used works best for freezing whole strawberries. Timing is key too – try to freeze them as close to the time they are harvested as possible in order to retain nutrients and taste. Here’s the scoop on freezing whole strawberries: Rinse the berries in cool water – don’t leave them in the water for too long or you’ll [...]

This spring may have been cooler than usual but it is still, after all, spring. My goal for May and early June was to stock up on three early-spring crops: Asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries. We’ve purchased and preserved more than 12 pounds of asparagus already. (Two or three pounds were consumed right away!) We sampled some tasty rhubarb, however, I discovered that my family is not as fond as I am soLocal Strawberries I opted not to preserve any. And [...]

Farmer’s market season is here! If you’re participating in Locavore90, you’ll probably be making a handful of trips to your local farmers market or farmstand. Many farmers market frequent-flyers bring their own reusable grocery bags to the market to bring food home. But in a recent post about reusable produce bags from Love for Earth (click here for details) we talked about taking it one step further and bringing reusable produce bags to the market. We love them so much [...]

Howdy folks! It has been quite a week for us. On the family side of things, our first foster child went back to his family yesterday. On the farm side, the weather has finally been warm. A healthy mix of rain, humidity, sun and some natural fertilizer (fish emulsion) have proven to be very beneficial to the gardens. On one hand I’m very pleased with how healthy everything is and how it is progressing along given this season’s circumstances. But [...]

As of today we’re on track with the Locavore90 June Meal Plan! Today’s meal was Beef Stroganoff. Ours was made with locally-raised, natural beef from Comstock Limousin Freezer Beef (Jack and Selma Comstock) in Mendon, MI. I also used the breadcrumbs I talked about creating in this post. It was sooo yummy! Want the recipe? You can find it here. For the entire meal plan, join Locavore90 by entering your email address in the box in the upper-right corner of [...]

Locavore90 officially started this past Sunday, June 2. Locavore90 (hereafter lovingly referred to as L90) is a free program that helps Southwest Michigan families incorporate more local food into their diet. I’m excited about leading the L90 participants on this adventure of finding, buying and eating local foods during the summer months! But… with our lives changing so dramatically during the last month (we recently became a foster family for the first time) I must confess that I am not [...]