Family Fun at the Salem, NH Farmer's Market! Part 1

This past Sunday, the guys and I decided we wanted to visit a farmer's market that we hadn't been to before.  We decided to Check out the Salem, NH Farmer's Market.  It is located on Lake St. at the Lake Street Garden Center.  The market is open on the first and third Sunday of the month during the winter.  The hours are 12pm-4pm until May.  The market was founded in 2010.

I can honestly say what drew me most on the list of vendors was Brookford Farm.  Brookford Farm is a NH farm that offers raw milk, yogurt, cheeses, all from grass-fed cows.  They also have pastured pork, Grass-fed Beef, free-range eggs, New England Grain, vegetables, and a Whole Diet Based CSA Share.  Their site is beautiful and their staff is very friendly.  At the market, I met Jamieson, and he told me he has been part of the Brookford Farm for two years.  He had a table set up in front of an old white truck that was reminiscent of the old milk man's trucks.  When we arrived Jamieson was still setting up.  I held back from running over....I was dying to try raw milk.  I have never tried it, and have read of many health benefits of consuming raw milk.

Doesn't this remind you of the old milk man's trucks?

This is a quote found on the Brookford Farm website.  "Our milk is also raw, meaning that it’s never pasteurized, or subjected to high temperatures. We believe that raw milk is better to drink because it contains beneficial probiotic microorganisms, vitamins, and enzymes. It’s also much higher in vitamins like beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E. Even some people who are lactose intolerant are able to drink milk in its raw state, since the enzyme lactase, which helps to digest lactose, is not destroyed by the high heat of pasteurization.  Many people also think that Brookford Farm milk is uncommonly delicious. In 2010, we were awarded “Best Milk” by New Hampshire Magazine, and have won numerous awards from milk distributors like Organic Valley and other organizations."

I have to say, me and my family totally agree with New Hampshire Magazine.  Brookford Farm Milk is honestly the best we ever had.  My son normally drinks chocolate milk, but he loved it so much he had three glasses.  He said "it's so creamy and delicioussssssssss!  Can I have more?"  Normally, we are not milk drinkers, and usually we have to (and I hate to admit that we are so wasteful) throw out part of our milk because it has gone sour.  This milk was so tasty, and like Aidan said creamy, and sweet.  We drank the half gallon in two days.  I can't wait to go back to get more.  We love that it comes in Ball Canning jars too.  We use them for everything at home.  Drinking, canning, storing leftovers, making yogurt.  I told Jamieson about my blog as I was buying the milk and he offered to give me some yogurt to review.  That too, was just as great as the milk, smooth, creamy, and fresh.  I like to make yogurt when I have the time, but I haven't in a while so we were excited to try new to us products and support a local business.  I can definitely say that I will be looking into their other products and continue to buy milk and yogurt from them.

Cookies, Crispy pops, and Marshmallow samples!  YUM!

Cupcakes

We needed something to enjoy our milk with and the place for that was Modern Sweets, a Merrimack, NH based baking business run by a mom named Charlotte.  Her booth was so cute it drew me over.  She had beautifully decorated cupcakes, and Easter cookies, and homemade graham crackers drizzled in chocolate, and some rice crispy pops.  I started talking to her about how great everything looked. She told me she just recently started her business a few weeks prior.  She is definitely off to a great start.




 She offered samples of her homemade marshmallows, and once one melted in my mouth, she had me sold.  I told her that I have a blog, and when I told her the name she mentioned seeing it on a search.  She offered me some of her Easter sugar cookies, and two different flavored cupcakes to review.  I knew Aidan and I would have fun trying them out, and I bought some of her marshmallows and graham crackers so we could make some microwaved smores.  All perfect to taste with our Brookford milk. 


And the taste testing begins!....



We went to the market Sunday and Aidan and my niece tasted some of the cookies, and loved them!

Monday after school, Aidan and I set up for our sampling!  We couldn't wait for supper.  We had a lot of fun.  First was the milk and cupcakes.  The cupcake on the left is chocolate with peanut butter frosting.  My boy loves chocolate, but only really likes peanut butter in sandwiches, so he wanted to have some cookies instead.  I liked the cupcake.  Then we tasted the beautifully decorated carrot cake flavored cupcake.  I love carrot cake and so does Aidan.  We make one for John's birthday every year.  I adored this cupcake...I was proud of myself.  I didn't devour it.  I split it in three.  I needed to leave room for the Smores we were about to create in our microwave, while Aidan was busy dunking an Easter egg shaped sugar cookie in his second glass of milk...Those were really good, but I behaved.  I had some Pulled Pork cooking in my crock pot that we purchased the meat from the market Sunday from Hurd Farm.  ( I will talk about that in post 2).  We had some smores we had to make!

 I apologize for the lousy lighting here.  These pictures do not do justice to the delicious Graham Crackers, marshmallows, and smores we created with our Modern Sweets.  I don't think after eating these graham crackers that I will ever want a boxed one again....This was....amazing.  I will have to try to make some with Aidan for those times we don't have a chance to catch up with Charlotte at the market.

 Are they making you hungry yet?  These are not flimsy graham crackers, but dense, crispy, tasty goodness.  They had just the right amount of chocolate to make good smores.  If you are going to make some smores, it is a good idea to remember that these are fresh, homemade ingredients, without all the preservatives of the store bought marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.  We don't have a huge microwave and it only took about 7-8 seconds...(make sure you stand and watch, so you don't get a huge mess) to get some ooey-gooey smores perfection.  Seriously, screw you Nabisco, Hersheys, and Kraft.....Modern Sweets are where the best smores are at.  And no, Charlotte did not pay me to say that....that's my opinion, and the evidence is below!  See what I mean??????  (Again, sorry for the lighting, the skylights are great, until you need a picture!)

I will post soon about the other great products and vendors at the Salem, NH Farmers' Market.  We will definitely making a return trip soon!

Make Your Own Foamy Paint!

During February vacation, I was looking for some easy to do craft ideas for Aidan and I to have some fun with.  We planned on tackling making our own dish soap and laundry detergent as part of our experiments, but I figured something easy and artistic for Aidan would be fun too!  We have a book called The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions .  It is a really cool book with a ton of fun paints, doughs, slime and other fun kid approved concoctions to make and enjoy!  We decided to make Foamy Paint on page 36. 

The Great thing about the Kid Concoctions book, is that the recipes are created with things you would usually find at home, so no last minute running around for ingredients (most of the time).  Aidan loves any chance he can to mix or create so he was super-excited to make some new paints! 

All you need to make foamy paint is three things

1. a muffin tin or ice cube tray (we used the ice cube tray but I think a muffin tin would be great!)






2. one can white shaving cream. ( here you get a lot of bang for   your buck so you can borrow some of dad's if that's what he uses, you only use a little.)

3. food coloring

How to Concoct:

Place a small dab of shaving cream into each ice cube tray or muffin tin.

Add 1-2 drops of food coloring to each section and stir with a spoon. 

Aidan and I played around with the amount of food coloring and mixed colors and tried to guess what we would get.  He had a lot of fun with this part.  The book suggests using foamy paint to make 3d sculptures.  A snowman is shown in the book.  We used q-tips, one in each ice cube holder to paint onto our card-stock.  It was a lot of fun!

Our Foamy Paint!

 Aidan enjoyed testing out the different colors and ways to combine them on his pictures!

 Instead of two thumbs up he gave me a peace sign and a big smile.  We will probably make this again, it's a great rainy day activity and clean up was simple.  We have some really cool pictures Aidan made hanging around the house now.

 My boy making a house and grass!  It came out really good when it was done!

Mama's fun painting using foamy paint!  It was fun to use, and the colors vibrant.  It took about 5 minutes to make, and entertained Aidan for an hour or so!  We are going to try it again when my niece is visiting.  She is almost three!

The author suggests using the paint to paint pictures safely on bodies.  I wish I did that with Aidan with the leftovers, before bath time!  Let me know if you try it and how your little ones like it!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!