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

What is Cream Top Milk?

What is Cream Top Milk?

South Mountain Creamery's Cream Top Whole Milk is made the way “Old Fashioned” way, with the cream naturally rising to the top. The cream naturally floats to the top because it is not homogenized.

Homogenization is a process that shrinks the cream globules and makes them blend in the milk. The fat in milk naturally separates from the water and collects at the top. Homogenization breaks the fat into smaller sizes so it no longer separates. Before SMC milk is homogenized, the fat molecules are mixed throughout the milk, but after an hour of sitting they start rising to the surface. This process forms the cream at the top. At SMC, after milk is heated to kill the bacteria (a process called pasteurization), the milk is run through a machine called a homogenizer, where the milk is forced with high pressure through fine screens which break the fat molecules down and keeps the cream suspended in the milk.

Which is better: Cream Top or Homogenized?

It’s a personal preference—some people prefer their milk to have an even texture, while other people believe non-homogenized milk tastes better and like the cream top.

The cream at the top can be mixed in with the milk – simply poke it with a chopstick or the end of a spoon handle to push it in the bottle, and then give the bottle a good shake. You can also scoop the cream out and just eat it. It's pretty delicious, especially with a little sugar sprinkled on top of it. Sprinkle a little sugar on top or spread the cream on baked goods with a little jam. Use SMC Cream Top Milk for coffee, rice pudding, mashed potatoes, and more!

Apple Cider

September is here which means home-delivered cider will again be coming to your doorstep!

  

South Mountain Creamery partners with Distillery Lane Ciderworks to offer you fresh apple cider!

Distillery Lane Ciderworks, located in Frederick County just outside of the town limits of historic Burkittsville, supplies all of the apples and cider sold by SMC.  Their family-owned and operated farm specializes in growing unique apples that are perfect for cider, baking, and eating.

The 3500+ trees at the DLC orchard were custom-crafted and planted in 2002.  These trees were selected because of their extremely high consumer ratings in three important categories: fresh eating, baking, and cider making.  You'll find that eating a variety such as Liberty, a semi-tart, crisp variety, or baking with Bramley's Seedling, an American classic, really does make all the difference.

Distillery Lane Ciderworks produces the cider and South Mountain Creamery pasteurizes and bottles it There are no additives in the cider, it is 100% apple juice.  The cider is blended to balance sweetness, tartness, and acidity, and is fresh-pressed every week. 

Each batch is unique because of the just-picked apples that go into the mix.  Once you’ve tasted an ice-cold glass, we are sure you’ll agree that our cider is some of the area’s best cider.  Our first batch of cider this season – available at SMC starting September 5^th -- will be a tart blend of “Red Gravenstein” and “Summer Rambo” apples.

View our Apple Cider Pinterest board for recipe ideas: http://www.pinterest.com/southmtcreamery/

Learn more about Distillery Lane Ciderworks at www.distillerylaneciderworks.com 

Farm to Fork Frederick 2014

Farm to Fork Frederick

South Mountain Creamery is proud to be a farm participant in the second year of Farm to Fork Frederick! South Mountain Creamery is one of 10 participating farmers.

Farm to Fork Frederick is an 11-day culinary celebration of locally sourced foods. Every participating restaurant has a special Farm to Fork Frederick menu that uses 70% of Frederick County grown and rasied farm foods.

Starting August 22 and ending September 1, 2014, you can enjoy local Frederick County Flavors at restaurants throughout the county.

This year, 10 restaurants have selected South Mountain Creamery as one of their sources for locally grown food. These restaurants will use South Mountain Creamery’s products, including milk, eggs, and ice cream in their Farm to Fork Frederick menus:

• Barley and Hops Grill & Microbrewery (www.barleyandhops.net)
• Beans in the Belfry (www.beansinthebelfry.com)
• Firestone’s Culinary Tavern (www.firestonesrestaurant.com)
• JoJo’s Restaurant & Tap House (www.jojosrestauranttaphouse.com)
• Fitzgerald’s Shamrock (www.shamrockrestaurant.com)
• La Paz Mexican Restaurant (www.lapazmex.com)
• Mistero Bar & Italian Grille (www.misterofrederick.com)
• The Lodge (www.lodgerestaurant.net)
• Sumittra Thai Cuisine (www.sumittra.com)
• The Wine Kitchen (www.thewinekitchen.com/frederick)

Let us know which restaurants you will be dining at! Tag South Mountain Creamery in your photos or use the hashtags #smcdairy and #F2FF!

To learn more about Farm to Fork Frederick, visit www.farmtoforkfrederick.com!

Celebrate National Farmers Market Week

August 3-9 is National Farmers Market Week!

Farmers markets across the country offer fresh, affordable, convenient, and healthful products, and they’re sold directly from the farm!

National Farmers Market Week recognizes the importance that farmers have in the agricultural and food economy.

"Farmers markets play a key role in developing local and regional food systems that support family farms, and help grow rural economies. They bring communities together, connecting cities with the farms that support them and provide Americans across the country with fresh, healthy food," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

This year marks the 15^th Annual National Farmers Market Week. The first was celebrated in 2000!

South Mountain Creamery participates in two Farmers Markets on Saturday and Sunday in Baltimore.

• 32nd Street Farmers' Market: Located at the parking lot at East 32nd Street and Barclay Street, Baltimore.  This market runs year round on Saturdays from 7:00am - 12:00pm. 
• Baltimore Farmers' Market: Located Under the JFX Viaduct. This seasonal market runs only on Sundays.

Five Benefits of Shopping at Farmers Markets:

1. Enjoy seasonal fruits and vegetables
2. Supporting family farmers and small businesses
3. Protecting the environment: local foods travel shorter distances
4. Know where your food comes from: shopping at farmers markets allow you to meet the farmers who produce your food
5. Connect with your community