62F, What?

Yesterday I went to the farmer's market in Union Square and was so amazed that it was 62F degrees out.  Like 62F on February 1st!  I don't remember the last time, if ever, it was this warm in NYC in the month of February. Hello, is it winter?  Or did we skip winter and go straight to spring.  This weather is too weird for me.  It's confusing for people and plants.  I have bulbs coming up already, I saw leaves growing on the irises and daffodils in my garden, it's too early!!  Because the weather was so warm, the Farmer's Market was brimming with activity.  One of the cool things I saw was this vendor selling microgreens.  I don't know why I've never started a tray of greens like this before, it's so easy, you just sprinkle seeds over a flat of soil.  It's literally just lettuce seedlings that are cut and eaten.  Super cool idea!

The main reason I went to the Farmer's Market was to pick up my quarts of Ronnybrook Farm milk.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I love to support eating locally and knowing where your food comes from.  I especially love to support anything that is produced right here in the state of New York.  Ronnybrook, located in Ancramdale, NY, is a 3rd generation family run farm that practices organic and sustainable farming.  They allow their cows access to pasture everyday, they are "free range" cows.  Also, the farm never uses artificial growth hormones on the cows and the milk is non-homogenized, so that the milk looks like the creamy milk it should be, not that watery looking stuff you buy at the supermarket.  Ronnybrook is also committed to recycling, the milk comes in these glass bottles. To encourage recycling, when you purchase the milk, they charge you $1.50 for a bottle deposit.  After you consume the milk, you can bring the bottle back to them and they in turn gives back your deposit of $1.50.   The milk is bottled right on the farm, and so it cuts out the processing middle man.  Therefore when you purchase the bottled milk, the profits go right back to the farm.  Another reason to buy local, to keep the local farms in business.  I don't bring my bottles back though to get my deposit, I love the design of the bottles, so I re-use them to store juice or sometimes I use the bottles as flower vases.  When I got to the farmer's market, they had run out of the Chocolate milk that I love, so I ended up with 2 Quarts of low fat milk.  I'll buy some U-bet chocolate syrup to make my own.  U-bet is a local chocolate syrup made in Brooklyn.  Ooh, maybe I'll make some egg creams. Delicious!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5