THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR WONDERFUL
CATBIRD CUSTOMERS OF 2011

SEE YOU WHEN THE WORLD TURNS
GREEN AGAIN

Where's Bubba?

The Sunshine Vegetables

Fresh corn, roasted yellow crookneck squash, carrots, yellow beans, yellow beets, and baby scallions make up the the ingredients in The Sunshine Supper. August's gardens offer up just the absolute best flavors of all and this one is delicious, served over rice with all these light vegetables and topped with a rich cheesey sauce.

We have an outstanding eggplant crop this year, so this week we've also made wonderful Ratatouille and Eggplant Parmesan dinners. The new Shepherd's Pie dinner is made with Vandemark Farm grass fed beef, creamed greens, and topped with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes.

We grow all the vegetables for these dinners on our farm in Angelica, NY. Our garden ground has been carefully tended without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides for over 35 years. Our gardens are steps away from our certified kitchen where we turn freshly picked produce into dinners and soups ready to eat for you and your family.

All our dinners are available for purchase at both the Angelica Farmers' Market on Saturdays 10-2 and at the Belmont Farmers' Market, Thursdays 11-2.

New Catbird Dinners

If every US citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. The Catbird Griddle can help with this!

We have terrific food producers around here...Vandemark Farms Vegetables and Grass Fed Beef, Wilson's Beef Farms, Friendship Dairy, Polly O Mozzarella, Cuba Cheese, Southern Tier Brewery, Angelica Winery...just to name a few. We can help you do your part by producing and selling frozen dinners which contain only foods grown and produced locally. Our dinners are delicious, reasonably priced and of course, homegrown and homemade!

Our new dinners are the Jumbo Pork Chop Dinner with roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, and green and yellow beans in brown gravy. Then we have the Catbird Oven Fried Chicken Dinner, pictured above, with baked beans, or pan fried Yukon Golds, and roasted vegetables just picked from our gardens. We have new soups this week too; our 6 Vegetable Soup, Sunshine Soup, and Bean n' Bacon Soup.

These in addition to all the dinners you'll find described on the blog's Frozen Take Home Dinner page. All our dinners are available at The Belmont Farmers' Market on Thursdays 11-2, and at the Angelica Farmers' Market Saturdays 10-2. Come see us for dinners ready to heat and eat.

Do you have...

Someone special? When you were growing up, was there someone outside your immediate family who connected with you and stayed connected? Then when you got old enough to not take them for granted, they were still connected and you really liked that.

The aunts and uncles of our worlds sometimes guide us as strongly as our own parents. They are often that someone who's ways suited us; or who you found yourself emulating to your benefit. They'd hold out a hand to help you up. Show you how to laugh and cope. Look around. You have that person. I have several. One has passed away after a good long life.

The Catbird Griddle will not open in Angelica this Saturday the 23rd of July and will not open in Belmont next Thursday the 28th of July. My entire family will attend the memorial service of a funny, lovely, supportive role model and hang out together for a few days remembering her.

The Granary

Most people don’t know that we have a farm guest cottage that we rent out as a vacation house. “The Granary” is just that, formerly our farm’s grain building for 100+ years, we cleaned it out and moved it a few years ago and now it’s a fun spot for families or friends looking for a place to relax on a working farm. Guests wander the land, swim in the creek, and enjoy Angelica, which is pretty spruced up these days with 6 antique stores, a good restaurant with live music, and the Saturday Farmers’ Market.

The sleeping porch looks out over our lower fields and woods, which are usually very misty in the morning. There’s a curtained off sleeping area inside too, and a sitting area and kitchen with counters built of wood we cut off this land. There’s an indoor bathroom and an enclosed outdoor shower. Then there’s the loft for kids with a ladder to climb up inside, and one that lets them escape outside too. We left the walls inside the original wood, so it’s rustic looking but the WiFi reception is good for staying in touch.

We’ve let the area around the Granary grow up in wild flowers except for in the large fence yard perfect for pooches, and we also mow an area that has a campfire site and tent site nearby. It’s a little charmer so we thought our Catbird Griddle friends should know about it. It’s listed on vrbo.com and flipkey.com

Lavender Festival

Lavender, the sweet clean fragrance of Southern France, does not like a wet climate. Provence is a hot dry place where limestone outcroppings are common. But, Yardley seemed to do well with their wonderful British soap and Lavender fields became common in modern England.

Then the plant breeders went to work and created Lavender that will grow even in the colder wet climates. “Dilly” lavender survives most all the weather western NY can throw at it.

Of course, it took California to come up with modern ways to savor lavender in the culinary arts, though the ancient Greeks and others used lavender for cooking and medicines. By the way, the French in Provence are still scratching their heads over ‘culinary lavender’, but there too this concept is catching on.

This weekend is Angelica’s 4^th Lavender Festival. Saturday from 10 til 4, the Catbird Griddle will put this culinary delight to good use. Try a touch of lavender sprinkled on top of the whipped cream served with fresh blueberries on our pancakes. You’ll like our Lavender Chicken Salad, and our scrumptious Frosted Lavender Lemon Cake. You can take home an Apricot Lavender Chicken Dinner or a Sweet and Sour Lavender Chicken Dinner. Our Frozen Take Home Dinners are fresh frozen with local meats and vegetables. These frozen chicken dinners are…sauced local chicken, fresh garden vegetables from our gardens served over rice or pasta. Saturday we’ll also be serving Lavender Lemonade, as we always do.

No, it’s not Provence. It’s Angelica!….and it’s time for the Lavender Festival.