A Keswick table displays Tomme cheese samples.

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Family farms often face an uphill climb just to reach level ground. For Keswick Creamery, that hike just got steeper. Rather than give in, the popular artisan farmstead cheese makers who sell at six area farmers markets have devised a way to keep their livelihood going.

Mel and Mark Dietrich Cochran, who run the creamery, recently learned that they have until September 1 to raise $300,000. If they do not hit the goal, Mel’s father will opt to continue with his plan of selling off the equipment and shuttering the operation. The Dietrich Cochrans have looked to a community-supported agriculture (CSA) model and an online ordering tool to sell shares in their business. Each purchase of a Keswick Creamery Cheese CSA share brings them closer to continuing the family business.

Read on at Examiner.com.

For more information about Keswick and the CSA, visit the Keswick Creamery website.

The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace opened Saturday, June 5, with a kickoff that hit more than a few hallmarks of a community event. The market, which debuted its regular time of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in its home at 14th Street and Park Road NW, brought together individuals of different political stripes, shoppers of varied tastes, and members of several generations.

Eight sellers offered everything from strawberries and garlic scapes to bratwurst and blue cheese, with some sunflowers, wine vinegar, garden-ready plants, and French pastries as well. Not only did mayoral race foes Adrian Fenty and Vincent Gray stand on the same stage, but nearly the whole City Council (as well as the Ward One representative to the school board, Dotti Wade Love) turned up to make an appearance or sent volunteers to collect signatures get them on the ballot. A gravely-voiced resident who had lived on Kenyon Street for 55 years stood yards away from a pint-sized poet who had barely been walking for five. Dance and music, from performers of every age in between, rounded out the entertainment.

Click over to the full article, including video and a photo slide show.

June lies precisely at the midpoint of the year between Hanukkahs (Hanukkim?)  This fact, paired with the realization that the first publication rights to a few of my recipes has expired, got me thinking about oil. Coconut oil, to be specific.

Coconut oil figured into all of my baking experimentation for my “Cupcakes for Hanukkah” article on My Jewish Learning last December. (Including the recipe that served as a base for deep-fried cupcakes. Yum!)

More about coconut oil and a recipe after the jump.

The ingredient continued to emerge in my kitchen for some months after, thanks to a new obsession with the vegan chocolate cupcakes. They’re just so moist and delicious, and so cheap and easy to make with ingredients I always have around.

I also liked using the stuff in curries and stir-fries for added flavor. In addition to the taste, the potential for health benefits also drew me to it. The health claims are controversial, but also supported by significant research. I’m confident the oil’s good for you, but can’t vouch for its healthfulness when used in deep-fried sugary foods!

My favorite use for the oil, aside from adding it to those addictive confections, was frying tempeh. I don’t find those slabs of fermented soy exactly overflowing with character on their own, so I like to cube and fry or broil them. Used in the skillet or baking pan, the coconut oil infuses the tempeh with a sweet hint of tropical air as it crisps the cubes and adds richness.

The kind I used was organic virgin coconut oil from Tropical Traditions. The company offers 32-ounce samples of their fragrant cooking companion to food bloggers. Another reason for this post is to finally publish something about their generous gesture (hey, they could have gotten similar exposure with 8-ounce samples). TT doesn’t require a follow-up post, but I figure it’s only fair!

Like in that famous Hanukkah miracle, my jar has lasted an unprecedented amount of time. It sat in my cupboard through the winter, a cloudy white mass that stood fast even though I felt like I constantly spooned it out or set it on my stove to melt with the heat of the pilot lights.  And now it has remained through the heat of D.C. in late spring. The air long ago hit the oil’s melting point of 76 degrees F and has been waiting, clear and patient, for my next experiment.

To relive Hanukkah times and revel in a tropical ingredient as summer approaches, check out the recipe below, and/or the full MJL article with all three recipes.

Basic (Vegan) Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, reprinted with permission of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who co-authored the book with Terry Hope Romero. Makes 12 regular cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes.

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil [here's where you can use the coconut oil!]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Outfit a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and extracts to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).

Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 15 to 20 minutes (on the lower end if making mini cupcakes), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

The Cheverly Community Market opens Saturday, May 29, with old and new favorites. Unique offerings include fresh-brewed coffee, wine, and seafood.

The market has announced a tantalizing list of vendors and performers:

ChvBrew is back, providing hot coffee.

Charles and Kelly of Cheverly’s Hot Noodles will be back from last year to entertain as the market’s own house band.

Cheverly Breadbasket will have chips and fresh salsa for those who have been missing them all winter. This is in addition to the regular selection of freshly baked, organic breads and baguettes. (Organizers recommend you come early to get first choice of your favorite pastries). In addition to the wildly popular chocolate espresso cookies, the Breadbasket will have coconut macaroons and lemon cooler cookies.

Cookies to Cocktails is back, and Liz Esposito has had all winter to perfect her cookie creations.

CHV Gardens/Garden Club/CCM will be sharing a table selling tomatoes and herbs as a joint fundraiser.

New Starts Farm will have:

• Ten different herbs in 3 and 4 inch pots.
• Hot and sweet peppers
• Several varieties of tomato, including Brandywine and beefsteak
• Flowers, including double pink impatience, geraniums, dwarf sunflowers, perennial pacific giant delphiniums, rudbeckia, several varieties of sun coleus, and roses
• A few special hanging baskets of angel wing begonia combinations
• Basignani Winery offers Baltimore County’s fine wine. Try Erik’s Big Zin for outdoor parties!
• White Rose Farms, a new vendor, is coming with lettuces, peas, radishes, and other vegetables, along with strawberries.

Also, free-range pork sausage, pork chops, and ham slices

Radix Farms, another new vendor, will have spicy braising mix, greens, turnips, garlic scapes, and other vegetables, as well as seedlings (tomatoes, chili peppers, basil, parsley, and swiss chard).

Reberts Farm is bringing all the spring favorites: strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus

Shlagel Farms, with farmer Eileen, a familiar market face, will have herbs, strawberries, spring onions, eggs, bedding plants, and hanging baskets.

Two Oceans, a new vendor, adds wild and fresh frozen seafood:

• Smoked and fresh keta salmon
• Sockeye salmon fillets
• Ahi tuna portions
• Mahi portions
• New England dry scallops
• and Chesapeake rockfish fillets

Another new vendor is Simply Sausage. They will be grilling and sampling a selection of artisan sausages for your weekend breakfast and backyard barbecue.

And more old favorites:

-Martha’s Jams

-Eve’s Cheese

-Circle C Oyster Ranch

As a recent American Prospect article made clear, not all farmers markets are geared toward shoppers who need fresh fruits and vegetables the most. Yet two markets in the District have opened or expanded this season to address that critical constituency.

The Howard University Hospital (HUH) began hosting a twice-weekly farmers market Tuesday, May 11, and will continue to feature produce from Pennsylvania and North Carolina farmers each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hospital courtyard. The hospital is located in Ward 1 at 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, near the Shaw/Howard University Metro and steps off several Metrobus routes. The market accepts WIC and Senior CSFP vouchers.

The purpose of the market, according to a Howard press release, is to help address the scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables in African American communities. With its location in Ward 1, the campus is a good place to start. The market is a project of the program HUH CARES, and has been commended by Dr. Denia Tapscott, a bariatrician and program director for the Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery, as a service that can address the obesity epidemic among African Americans. The market may get a mention as part of EBONY Magazine’s year-long coverage of the center.

The Ward 8 Farmers’ Market starts its season on Saturday, June 5. The market, which carries a social justice mission, is now entering its 12^th season of bringing fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, and more from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the heart of Congress Heights. The market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the old Congress Heights School at 500 Alabama Ave. SE, near the Anacostia and Congress Heights Metro stations on the green line. For years, this area suffered from a dearth of grocery stores but an abundance of small corner stores, where fresh food makes up only one percent of the offerings.

The market will expand this year, creating the only weekday farmers market east of the Anacostia River. Beginning on June 8, it will operate from the parking lot of the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Ave. SE near the Southern Avenue Metro station on the green line. The market will run each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. through October. Also new this year is a website for the market: www.ward8farmersmarket.com.

Both Ward 8 Farmers’ Market locations will accept EBT cards issued in D.C., SNAP cards issued in Maryland, the new WIC Cash Value Checks (CVC), and other food assistance coupons such as those offered by the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

The market continues to provide vegetables and fruit to corner stores in Congress Heights, with the help of a grant from the Capital Area Food Bank, in exchange for the promise that they are sold to the public at reasonable prices.

The D.C. Vegetarian Cooking Group has announced that it will put local fare at the center of its June event. Jack Zahora, who heads the group that meets once a month for a pot luck meal or restaurant outing, is encouraging the members to shop at an area farmers market the weekend of June 5, whip up dishes based on the ingredients they purchase, and show them off at a brunch on June 6. The event will take place at the grill-equipped Columbia Heights home of one of the members.

This event comes at an opportune time, as the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace is slated to open that weekend, and the home-hosted brunch is becoming all the rage  in D.C.

Zahora, a D.C.-based journalist, has given a preview of the spread. He plans to make a vegetable frittata, baked mostachioli, mimosas, and grilled tomato sandwiches. Other items on the menu include vegan quinoa salad with vegetables, Belgian waffles, and sorbet.

Columbia Heights

For more information, go to the group’s website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed. To join the group and find out the particulars of the brunch location, email Jack Zahora.

I have a lot of catching up to do! For now, though, I’ll just say THANK YOU to the 18 folks who came out to the brunch, and the others who gave remotely (I owe you guys apple-cinnamon pancakes!). …And I’ll tell you that my donation thermometer is bubbling with happiness about my reaching 100+ percent of my goal. …And I’ll post the menu to the brunch.

Thanks again, everyone!

Black River Café Brunch

Menu

Hashbrowns

Twin Springs Farm potatoes and onions

Pancakes

• Mixed Berry-Chocolate Chip (Many Hands Organic Farm raspberries, Frog Eye Farm blueberries)

• Apple-cinnamon (Twin Springs apples)

• Strawberry-Banana (Virginia strawberries) – gluten/dairy-free available

Scrambled Eggs

Local veggies and Smith Meadows eggs

• Tomato-Basil-Arugula-Provolone

• Summer Squash-Chard-Cheddar

• Spring Onion-Asparagus-Arugula

Yogurt and Fruit

Keswick Creamery yogurt, local fruit, bananas, local honey

TO DRINK:

Orange Juice Mimosas

Coffee (fair trade and organic, with grass-fed cow milk)

Teas

We want to build onto, break apart, dig into, and make over the world. We see what is there and think we could have something a whole lot better. Then we make that something. That’s what makes us human.

The 50-odd participants in this process have sunk into our deepest cleansing of the three-week odyssey. We eat mostly fruits and vegetables, adding grains and beans as necessary. There’s a “detox elixir” to drink each morning in this phase, consisting of varying ingredients but always including fresh fruit juices, ginger, cayenne pepper, and fresh garlic. It actually tastes pretty good. It all seems so healthy and delightful.

However, some of us are experiencing disappointment — a lack of satisfaction — with the food. On participant reported to the Google group that her colorful salad no longer appealed. All she wanted to do was run out and bite into a hamburger. “Or maybe even a whole chicken,” she added. Others reported the same thing. I think we all felt bad that we struggled to stick with it.

I admit to the same problem. The daily veggie-only regimen, with no salt or tasty condiments, got boring. I usually love to eat — looking forward to lunch or dinner with the relish of a smoker having a nic fit, anticipating the comfort of those first few puffs.

The opposite feeling exists, too. This week, I went back to an excellent essay “Turning Japanese” by Heidi Julavits. “While eating a bean cake,” the author writes of her experience with this mild dessert in Kyoto, “I reach a moment when I don’t need, or want, another bite. I experience what I believe is contentment…and despite what my layman’s notion of Zen Buddhist nongoal goals lead me to expect, it is no blissfest.” Later, she leaves Japan only to experience an intense craving for the Japanese breakfast dish tekka-don. She realizes: “I am broke and aimless, I am racked by doubt and worry, I crave a food that’s three thousand miles away and I’ve never experienced such bliss in my life.” To desire, for her, meant delight — not guilt. And no doubt she was ready to pick up the tatters of her post-college existence and get a move on.

What happens when food is just food? Just sustenance? Not sensuously satisfying when we bite in? Not an answer or an inspiration or part of a chain of concerns about our lives? We get disappointed. We have to look elsewhere. Or we just give up feeling passionate about anything.

One solution is to add a kick of excitement with the foods we can eat. So I’ve been making this “meaty” seaweed salad. Ellen, our fearless guide, recommended sauteed mushrooms.

Is this cheating? Should we make these substitutions in the interest of a little exultation of the taste buds? Or should we sit quietly with our blankness and see if it takes us by the hand and leads us somewhere?

Here’s the salad. Dig in if you wish.

Sea Veggie Passion Salad

Dressing:

1 tsp. fresh ginger, grated

2 tsp. umbeboshi plum or apple cider vinegar

1 Tbs. safflower or olive oil

1 tsp. sesame oil, toasted or raw

Salad:

3/4 c. dried stringy seaweed, like hiziki or arame, soaked in hot water until tender, drained

1/2 medium daikon radish, shredded

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

In a small jar or cruet, combine the dressing ingredients and shake well. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl or storage container, combine salad ingredients. Toss well.

Pour dressing over salad and toss again to distribute. Eat right away or store for a day or two in the refrigerator. The flavors develop nicely after the salad has chilled for a while.

(This is cross-posted from The Jew and the Carrot)

Life in general distracts me. It’s true no matter what I’m doing or where I am. If I go into the food co-op for bread and peanut butter, I’ll carry out shampoo and trail mix; when I resolve to run twelve times around the track, I lose count after the third loop. Even when I get through a task, I often neglect to follow up or look back to consider its lessons. By the time I’m halfway through, my mind is already whirring off in another direction.

So I was a little concerned when I signed up for a 21-day “spring rejuvenation cleanse” and learned that it would involve focus. In multiple ways. But this also got to the heart of why I wanted to purify in the first place.

To get the most out of this food-based detoxifying experience, the approximately 50 participants are supposed to eat certain foods, avoid others, prepare detoxifying recipes, breathe deeply, take long walks, and journal about the whole thing each day. On top of all that, our guide encourages us to “eat mindfully.” I figured if I could do all of that, I might have a fighting chance of getting my attention deficit into the black.

Just before the cleanse’s official start date of April 5, I realized I already had an advantage when it came to mindful eating. To get started, I headed to my bookshelf.

Of course, it took me a few minutes of looking at other books and trying to remember why I was there, but soon I was leafing through my copy of Food for Thought, Hazon’s curriculum on Jews, food, and contemporary life. I turned to chapter 2, “Gratitude, Mindfulness, and Blessing our Food,” and started to get reacquainted with the berachot for the things I eat every day.

Usually, I only remember to say blessings over food or beverages on special occasions—at a Shabbat dinner, or during a Pesach Seder. I can count on one hand the number of times a year I say the Birkat Hamazon, or bensch, after a meal. During the 21 days of the cleanse, I decided, I would finally corral my attention and make it happen.

Food for Thought lists not two or three, but six blessings over noshes and meals (it’s the same list available from online resources like My Jewish Learning and Chabad). This demands even more attention.

First of all, I can’t start shoveling the morning’s oatmeal (pictured above) into my mouth while I iron my pants. No. I have to pause. Then I have to quiet my mind enough to consider: Is this food primarily made of grains? Or animal products? If it is a fruit or vegetable, does it come from a tree or the ground? The second step is to remember the last phrase after the standard preamble blessing God, ruler of the universe. Is it “…who creates varieties of nourishment?” (for foods made of grains that are not bread), or “who creates the fruit of the tree”? The third step is to say it. Then, of course, you can dig in.

Throughout the first days, I kept severing my string of consciousness. On the first night, I even determined, as I fussed with my salad in the kitchen, that I should say “borei p’ri ha’adamah.” One step down! I thought. This’ll be a cinch. But by the time I brought everything to the table, I forgot and just started eating.

When I did remember that night, I decided to do it anyway. So I stopped. I put down my fork and I looked up from the book I was reading. I held the bowl in my hands, looking down at the mix of green in the lettuces and examining the shades of orange and ivory in the other vegetables. Then I said the blessing aloud.

Next, I turned to my salmon. I said the blessing I had been trying to learn for the past day, the one that applies to fish, dairy, candy, and other miscellaneous foods–a collection of things that reminded me a lot of the sundry thoughts jumbling through my head most of the time. I stumbled a little, but finally remembered the words: “…shehakol niyah bidvaro”–”at whose word all came to be.”

Then I picked up my fork and started over.

Stop and think; choose a blessing and bless; eat.

It seems a simple line of thought, and one that I can eventually complete. Maybe by the time I’m eating bread again, I’ll even make it to bensching.

Note: The Hebrew translations above are actually from My Jewish Learning, not Food for Thought. I noticed differences in each source I consulted. If you have thoughts on why that might be, feel free to comment!

Huffington Post readers like to consume progressive, left-leaning news. Now the publication has challenged readers to live those politics–if only for seven days. HuffPost bloggers Katherine Goldstein and Adam Clark Estes have announced the Week of Eating In Challenge, intended, they write in a post last week, “to make it all personal.”

The project is simple: divisions HuffPost Green and HuffPost Eyes&Ears have dared readers to cook their own food. The challenge is inspired by HuffPost blogger and author Cathy Erway’s book The Art of Eating In. Erway avoided restaurants and takeout for a full two years. The Challenge only lasts from February 22 to 28.

A post detailing the challenge reveals there are actually few details. Make your own food for a week and eat it—that’s it. The challenge itself, though, could have many intricate and delightful results. “We think that if you take the time to cook and learn about where your food comes from,” write Goldstein and Estes, “you’ll make better choices for yourself and the planet.” You could also save a ton of cash.

Farmers markets can play a big role in eating in. At market, challengees can buy fresh vegetables that inspire them to cook creatively, get recipes and tips from local farmers, and meet other devotees of healthy home cooking. Once you get the food home, be sure to show the HuffPost how you prepared it all in your tiny D.C. kitchen.

To get started:

• Make plans to visit a year-round farmers market this weekend.
• Check out a few local foods recipes to get inspired.
• Read Erway’s blog posts.
• Track your expenditures with the spending tracker.
• Get techie with some apps that make eating in easier.
• And, of course, share a photo of your tiny kitchen.

Bon appétit–chez toi!

(This is cross-posted from my Examiner.com site. If you have a question, want to get involved, or have a comment about the Week of Eating In Challenge, leave it here or there.)