Orono Local Buying Club

Thursday afternoon was the bi-weekly pickup for the Orono Local Buying Club.  The Buying Club is similar to a co-op in that we do order from a wholesaler - in our case it's United Foods - but the original purpose was to support Maine food producers year-round.  Our major supplier, in addition to several local farmers, is Crown of Maine Cooperative.  These folks work exclusively with Maine producers of food and food products and distribute to stores and coops throughout the state. Started in the "crown' of Maine, Aroostook County, COMOC now has a distribution center in Norridgewock.  Products include produce, dairy (milk, cheese, eggs, etc), legumes, grains and flours, oils, meat, fish and value-added products such as jams, syrups, etc. The list is quite long and especially in the summer the choices are spectacular.
We also order from three local farms including the organically-certified
Stone's Throw Farm in Newburghas well as E-I-E-I-O on Pushaw Road in Bangor and Living Land in Winterport.  These folks keep us going with eggs and root vegetables for much of the year.  This week my order included fantastic big white onions from Stone's Throw as well as their
crunchy, delicious sugar snap peas and cucumbers and a dozen orange-yolked eggs.  E-I-E-I-O provided two beautiful heads of new garlic and also had sugar snaps and braising greens available. Many members ordered big bunches of lacinato kale as well.   I  got 6 heads of perfect radicchio from Smith Family Farm in Hull's Cove who provide us with with great plain and flavored yogurts as well.  Flying Pond Farm was offering arugula and I mistakenly thought I was ordering two bunches and ended up with two pounds! (See further!)  Other COMOC farmers provided escarole and summer squash that looks like it came from a food magazine.  From Echo Ridge Farm came a camembert and a coulommiers, again proving that you don't have to go to France anymore to get great cheeses in the State of Maine. From United I ordered an 88 oz can of Zoe organic olive oil so a great meal was in the making.  We bought a quarter of an organic beef critter this year.  Just a small fellow but very tasty and I'm told that Harrington Bros is very careful with the organic side of their abattoir.  One pound of ground meat feeds four very nicely as simple grilled burgers topped with tangy slices of onion.  We ate the snap peas with the cheese instead of bread as some among us are mostly gluten-free. Just wash them and zip off the tough little strip from the stem end.  I washed and quartered a radicchio and let it drain on a kitchen towel.  When the burgers were finished we brushed the quarters with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and very briefly grilled them - just until grill-marks started to appear.  Grind of pepper and yum!   I had made most of dessert earlier. I crushed up some leftover sweetmeal biscuits (use vanilla wafers or graham crackers if you like) with some sugar, cardamom and melted butter.  Pressed it into a tart pan and baked at 375 for about 15minutes in the convection oven.
I let that cool and whipped together some mascarpone (or cream cheese) with a bit of creme fraiche (or sour cream or yogurt) with a taste of honey and some grated lemon rind.  Let that chill.  When it was time for dessert I spread the cream into the pie shell (just about a half-inch) and topped it with the raspberries my friend brought from her garden that I macerated with a bit of sugar while we ate the main course.   Cookie, cream, fruit, quick!
Now about that arugula.  Of course there is salad but lots of other things as well.  I think I will make about 4 cups of it into arugula pesto - replacing the basil with arugula and - since I left the pine nuts on the boat - some pecans.  Other ingredients are the same: garlic, parmesan and olive oil.  This could be spread on grilled bread or tossed with pasta.
I might make a potage vert (green soup) with sauteed onion and garlic,
arugula, peas, celery, parsley, basil and anything else green I can find.
I blend this with my vertical stick blender (use some vegetable or chicken broth) and you will think you have a cream soup but it is dairy-free.  Serve hot or cold with a squiggle of that pesto.   I might make a frittata with Stone's Throw eggs and a few cubed new potatoes, arugula and some romano. Salad of escarole with a yogurt blue cheese dressing on the side? Folks, there is A LOT of arugula in two pounds.  BTW, you can find info about joining the Orono Local Buying Club at The Store/Ampersand in Orono.  We encourage new members and you can save the surcharge by volunteering for one of the many jobs that need to be done to keep us going.
Next up: lunch on the boat.