DC Restaurant Week 2015

DC Restaurant Week is January 19-25, 2015! 

Over 200 of Washington, DC restaurants are participating in the 2015 DC Restaurant Week! Restaurant Week is a great opportunity to experience Washington, DC’s best restaurants at affordable prices. 

South Mountain Creamery is proud to supply some of DC's restaurants, bakeries and stores with all natural dairy products. Visit them and support local businesses!

Fresh off the Roast: A Washington, DC-based small batch roastery providing a selection of recently roasted beans in the city. All beans are sold within three days of roast and all in-house coffee is brewed with beans that roasted within a week. 

Pearl Dive Oyster Palace: Pearl Dive Oyster Palace welcomes you with a rustic décor that showcases a variety of repurposed items from around the United States.  A touch of southern hospitality is found in DC’s vibrant Logan Circle Neighborhood.  

Oyamel: Oyamel combines Mexico’s rich regional diversity with the modern urban atmosphere of Mexico City. The liveliness of the dining room is matched by the creativity of the menu and cocktail list, featuring antojitos—Mexican small plates—ceviches and tacos, plus unique margaritas, and an impressive array of wines and tequilas. 

Ice Cream Jubilee Union Kitchen: Made by friends in Washington, D.C. in small batches with all-natural local cream and the best ingredients they can find.

Read Apron Butchery:  Redefining the American butcher shop with a healthy dose of subversive attitude, fearless innovation and the best meats and meat products from Chef Nate Anda.

Bread Furst: A neighborhood bakery where Washingtonians can buy food for daily life or for celebration. At Bread Furst, you will find beautiful loaves of bread, bread with real character, pies, cakes and other pastries, breakfast foods of all sorts, and seasonally based savory foods for taking home.

Seasonal Pantry:  Seasonal Pantry’s Supper Club is a small 12 seat communal table restaurant. Serving one set multi-course menu four nights a week. Three days a week Seasonal Pantry is open to sell hand made products along with other pantry items.

Destination DC and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) produce Washington, DC Restaurant Week twice a year, in the summer and the winter. A complete list of participating restaurants is posted at www.ramw.org/restaurantweek.

Winter on a Dairy Farm

SMC Maternity Ward, December 2012

Life on a dairy/chicken/crop farm is very difficult in perfect conditions, but add cold, wet, windy or snowy conditions and it takes almost a superhuman to do it. 

Sowers Dairy provides almost all of the raw materials to make the products that South Mountain Creamery delivers to your door. SMC is a one-of-a-kind operation. Along with Sowers Dairy and Sowers Poultry, we do all the work from start to finish. We prepare the fields, fertilize through manure management, plant, nurture, and harvest the crops to feed our animals. Our animals are born and raised here and cared for on the farm 24/7. 

The forecast calls for 12 in. of snow, so what do we do? Same thing we do every day, get the job done, failure is not an option. Fortunately, it’s not something I have to do alone; we have a great team to support our efforts.  We don’t have the luxury of calling sick—the animals must be fed, milked, cared for and loved. 

Snow and Ice on Marker Road, heading toward SMC, February 2014

Plow the snow, dig out the feed, startup cold equipment, put gloves on and take them off. Stop what you’re doing to  assist a cow giving birth. Make sure the little life is good and care for the mother. Back to the feeding—oops power is out! Fire up the generators and make sure everything has power, before I return to feeding. 

Did I mention it is 5 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow is blowing sideways? Now the water is frozen, better find a heater, put a cardboard box around it, and start warming it up. 

Snow is blowing in the barn, better dig out the straw and get to bedding before the animals get cold. Back to the feeding, put in all the ingredients: hay, corn, silage, alfalfa, corn, soymeal, and mineral. Mix them together and wah-lah the feed is made.

Finally done, right? WRONG! That is the first farm, three more to go. Add milking, gathering the eggs, and scraping manure. It is just now sunrise. Do it again, over and over until you’re satisfied the animals have it better than you. Time to go home, it’s been an 18 hour day. Try not to worry about that first calf heifer that looked like she was going into labor and get some sleep. Six hours later, do it again. 

It’s the life we live, and we love to bring you farm fresh products. We are proud to provide you with products that we grow and care for, right here on our family farm.

-Ben Sowers

Kale: Quite the Super Food

SMC is working with Gude Brothers Greenhouses to bring you fresh kale! Gude Brothers is located in Middletown, right next to South Mountain Creamery. Learn about the history of kale, health benefits, and cooking tips!

Did you know…

Kale has been on dinner plates since Roman times and has long been common across much of Europe. It comes from the cabbage family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower, and collards.

The Benefits of Kale

Kale is known for having health benefiting anti-oxidant properties with low fat and no cholesterol. Kale is packed with vitamins and minerals: At 33 calories, one cup of raw kale has almost 3 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fiber, Vitamin A, C, and K, Folate, Alpha-linolenic acid, lutein, and zeaxanthin.

• Vitamin A: helps maintain healthy mucus membranes and skin and is  also essential for vision. 
• Vitamin K: helps maintain bone health by promoting bone formation and strengthening. 
• Vitamin C: a powerful antioxidant, which helps the body develop resistance against infections
• Fiber: helps manage blood sugar and makes you feel full  
• Folate: B vitamin that is key for brain development
• Alpha-linolenic acid: an omega-3 fatty acid 
• Lutein and Zeaxanthin: Gives kale its dark green color. Protects against macular degeneration and cataracts
• Minerals including copper, calcium, sodium, potassium (helps control heart rate and blood pressure), iron (aids in red blood cell formation), manganese, and phosphorus.

How to Cook Kale

Add kale to pasta sauce, smoothies, or soup. Or try one of these methods:

• Saute it: A splash of olive oil and a little onion or garlic. It cooks up in minutes—the leaf is tougher than spinach leaves, so it won’t wilt as quickly in the pan.
• Make a kale Caesar salad: You can eat kale raw in a salad. Try making a homemade mustard-based dressing that has all the thickness of Caesar but with fewer calories.
• Bake kale chips: Bake kale in the oven with just a little olive oil drizzled over lightly salted leaves.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/kale-nutrition-and-cooking