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Longstone Farm

cows local farm oneandahalfslices farm-to-table beef
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Longstone Farm

cows local farm oneandahalfslices farm-to-table beef

The OneandahalfSlices About page presents somewhat of a mission statement for the blog. Why am I doing this and why are we all here? – aside from the obvious: all the good food! (for the genesis of the name OneandahalfSlices, see Skillet Cornbread). The mission is simple.

 To explore ways to procure local ingredients, to cook more seasonally, and to make food healthier and more delicious at the same time. 

For those of you that know me well, you know that this topic of local, sustainable agriculture is of great importance to me and I do my best to ‘vote with my feet’ when it comes to what I eat. Once a good batch of recipes were up on the site, it was always my intention to bring the focus of the blog to the ingredients that go into those recipes. Because “when you are chasing after the best flavor, you are chasing after the best ingredients and when you are chasing after the best ingredients, you are in search of great farming.” – Chef Dan Barber (who has left his upstate NY Michelin restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns to consult at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee). I have many a friend and colleague who have said things like “I don’t eat seafood” or “I really hate green beans” or “mushrooms are gross,” and then proceeded to devour fresh caught Kingfish ceviche, grilled pole beans from the CSA, and fresh foraged morel and chanterelle risotto. You may not think you like green beans if you’ve only ever had them out of a can from the grocery store or slathered in Campbell’s mushroom soup in a Thanksgiving green bean casserole. But a fresh, crisp green bean, with all the flavor and sweetness of summer and sun, is something else entirely. Chef Barber said it more eloquently than I ever could. Food simply tastes better when it’s fresh. And made from ingredients that are in season and are grown in healthy soil that is part of a fully organic ecological system. 

Part of that system is meat (well, animals, really). Enter Longstone Farm in Lovettsville, Virginia. There are few farms in Virginia as dedicated to the narrative described above as Longstone Farm. Family owners Justin and Casey have gone all in with their lifestyle, their family, and their footprint, investing in the recursive, sustainable tenets of organic farming and local community, and producing some of the highest quality meats in Northern Virginia. The cream of their crop are their hogs and I firmly advocate that there is no better porkchop than a Longstone Farm porkchop. They also raise chickens and cattle. I have a lot to learn from the purveyors of Longstone Farm who engage in a lot of community outreach. For example, the photos you see here are from their Sunday Suppers, typically held over the spring/summer/fall seasons once a month, featuring local chefs who craft custom menus using Longstone Farm products. Before that dinner, Casey and Justin host a farm tour complete with hay ride where they show you their farm and briefly explain the rationale behind what they do every day and why. The evening is luxurious, relaxing, and enlightening for those who have never had the opportunity to think of food in a different way – food as community, food as nourishment for muscles and sinew, food as your personal connection to place, purpose, and your own body. 

Here is what you need to know about Longstone Farm:

  • They practice 100% organic, sustainable farming.
  • They have a self-service farm store in Lovettsville where you can buy as much or as little as you desire on your own time. Think it’s not worth the drive? Think about making a monthly trip out to beautiful Virginia countryside to buy local meat in bulk for the freezer to cook incrementally over the next 30-45 days. Not so difficult. Your meat would taste better and you’d be doing your part by supporting local farms!
  • They also have a smaller market on Rout 9. 
  • They offer bulk beef, pork, and chicken shares for those who want to purchase, say, half a cow.
  • Sunday Suppers are amazing but you have to be on their e-mail list to be notified of dates. Drop a comment if you want to be added. 
  • The farmers are serious, knowledgeable, and extremely open and generous with their time.

There will be more posts like these to come on OneandahalfSlices in the future as there are many great farms to explore in Northern Virginia. Ways to eat more locally and sustainably are things I very much want to explore through my cooking and, as mentioned previously, this blog is the chronicle of that exploration. I welcome you all to the OneandahalfSlices table for a 100% local dinner whenever you schedule permits – maybe join us for a Saturday Supper in Arlington and cook with us! And I challenge you all to take one step this year to do something slightly different around your relationship with food. Choose something like a Sunday Supper or The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm for date night. Stop eating foods that come in packages (chips, cookies, soups, instant meals and sides – it doesn’t take that much longer to make those things yourself if you know how – enter OneandahalfSlices). Sign up for a vegetable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. Stop buying meat in the grocery store and try Longstone Farm, Spring House Farm Store, or Whiffletree Farm meats instead. Challenging yourself or your household to do just one of these things will make a difference and may just begin an unexpected journey (there and back again) for you and your family. 
Other Local Farms & Eats
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Three Year Anniversary

Three years of flavor, sprinkles, playlists, and exploration! Whoa. It’s been a ride, you guys. You know. You’ve been here. It may seem like things have been quiet of late – but not so. Here’s the best of 2023 and what we have to look forward to in 2024…

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January 29, 2024 No Comments
rabbit chicken cassoulet recipe simple one pot one and a half slices

Rabbit Cassoulet

Here we are with Protein #2 in our Protein Trio and it’s a bit of a non-standard one. We don’t often cook rabbit but… we totally should! It is more delicate than chicken with more flavor, but still not too gamey. Cassoulets are bean-based stews with a protein that can stew all day or come together quite quickly. They are hearty and Fall-ish, and I am thrilled to have this one on my table. You can make this with roasted chicken or a sausage if the rabbit is a stretch for you.

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September 22, 2023 No Comments
one and a half slices

Salt

“I have two lovers in life that I have never slept with. The city of Paris and potatoes.” – Francis Mallmann. The taste of empanadas, parrillada, and red wine came to flavor my adolescence, calibrating my tastes – both for food and experience – for something deeper.

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January 28, 2023 5 Comments
one and a half slices Christmas 2022 present package recipe gift

Happy Christmas 2022

Happy Christmas 2022 and a Rice Krispie Treat with #holidayvibes If you worked for me, with me, or with Merigold Analytics in 2022, chances are you got one of these in early December. These little boxes are filled with the stuff dreams are made of – stickers, marshmallows, and Oreo cookies. This Christmas season, OneandahalfSlices made layered rice krispies stuffed with Oreo, Biscoff, Graham, candy cane, and many, many, tiny marshmallows. We celebrated Christmas this

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December 25, 2022 1 Comment
One and a half Slices october oktoberfest fall vibes

Oktoberfest

October has always been my favorite month (for cooking, for being). Let me tell you why.

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October 30, 2022 1 Comment
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Local

Sumac

OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Sumac

If you’re a Northern Virginia resident and looking for your next day trip out to the Virginia countryside, keep reading…

The two places where I have spent the most time in my life – Florida and Northern Virginia. (We will leave Georgia, Argentina, Pennsylvania, and Northern Spain aside for the time being). Both have the welcome benefit of being “agg states,” or states where agriculture flourishes almost year round. This, in concert with my mother’s perpetual distillation of food philosophy from the vapors of Florida coastal living, bred in me a deep appreciation and genuine curiosity for local agriculture, slow food movements, and organic farming. (I was, after all, raised on books like The Man Who Cooked For Himself and Ishmael). To this end, you all know I have a CSA and routinely patronize local establishments with a focus on procuring local, seasonal ingredients – produce, meat, and dairy alike. 

There are two places in particular in Northern Virginia that live into the #locallysourced theme extraordinarily well – one of those two is featured here today. 

The purveyors of Sumac, Northern Virginia’s newest local food pop-up kitchen in Sperryville, VA, are as down to earth as the stone fruits and cherries they are serving up this summer. Sumac (follow their Insta) was born from a love of local cooking.

Sumac is a spice grown in East Asia and Central Africa. A favorite flavor of mine, the Lebanese and Turkish have the most common varietals, the former a deep crimson, and the latter a lilac purple. As it turns out, Sumac grows in Northern Virginia as well. As the Sumac chef began planning his menus, it became apparent that a 100% local menu required some substitutions for common ingredients like oils, vinegars, and spices. Something that is not available in Northern Virginia is citrus, for which the sumac plant, with its citrus-y notes, became a viable substitute. 

Fennel Pie
Steak
Stone Fruit
Chicken
Fruit & Cheese

Sumac is housed at Penn Druid Brewing’s new location out in Sperryville, so barrel-fermented, natural cider and beer are available to accompany the Sumac menu. With 6-7 items split evenly between mains and desserts with a snack, Sumac announces its menu each week for its Thursday-Sunday opening. For fourth of July weekend, we were delighted with some of the best steak I have ever tasted, fennel pie topped with a light meringue (amazing!), chicken over a cornbread-esque base, an apricot tartine, and many local fruits and cheeses. It was quite the feast enjoyed under a vibrant sun, a strong wind, and in the company of the beautiful Shenandoah mountains. With picnic tables in a wide open field serving as your backdrop, this is easily the most peaceful, inspirational restaurant ambiance you’ll find in the area. 

While Sperryville can be a bit of a hike for us Northern Virginian-ers, there are other things to do out there as well like Mary’s Rock hike with fantastic views (which does not require entrance to Skyline Drive) and the Copper Fox Distillery. So if you’ve got half a day to fill, I highly recommend the hour drive out West to experience some of the cleanest, most creative, most sustainable food in Northern Virginia. May all restaurants follow your example, Sumac – keep cooking!

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Local

Grain, Meal, Rice

OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

#local Grain, Meal, & Rice

It’s no secret that I’m a proponent of local. Local meat, local produce, #getacsa. But what about grains?

Can those be local? Do we even produce them here in Virginia? About a year ago, I sifted through my pantry and saw flours from Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur, lentils from the Dakotas, and rice from India or the Lundberg family in California. ‘There have to be mills around here somewhere,’ I thought. And the search was on.

Ritual Fine Foods maintains a list organized by US state for where to source local and organic grains.

Below, you’ll find several mills local to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, which is the general area I’m going to go ahead and call “local” for myself. Most of them ship but I set out on a mission to visit each one and replace 90% of the packaged items in my pantry with locally-sourced grains, meals, and rice.

Wade’s Mill. Wade’s Mill is an awesome mill just outside of Charlottesville, VA. It’s been milling local grains since 1750, is open to visitors, and even hosts an annual 5K. The mill offers: grits, cornmeal, corn flour, wheat flour (whole wheat and white), wheat bran, farro and winter wheat, buckwheat flour, rye flour, and spelt flour. 

Migrash Farm in Maryland, milling kosher Chesapeake grain. For us Virginians, this is as truly local as it gets! Migrash is a small operation but the quality of its product is fantastic. It is said of Migrash that “the primary farmer can be contrarian and ornery; others who work there abiding and of refined character.” The harvests appear on the website but, typically, the mill offers: flours made from einkorn, seasonal wheats, rye, and spelt, in addition to rolled oats (for oatmeal!) corn flour, cornmeal, grits, and whole kernels.

Anson Mills is a larger operation out of South Carolina and is featured in many farm-to-table settings (restaurants, B&Bs, etc.) throughout the region, to include at The Biltmore Estate. The mill offerings are diverse: grits, corn, and polenta made from white, yellow, and blue corn; gold and brown rices and rice flours; semolina, pizza flours, bread flours, pastry flours, and whole wheat and white flours; rye flour; rolled oats; farro; gluten-free flour; and season peas (such as red peas!). 

Castle Valley Mill just outside of Philadelphia mills mostly local PA grains. The mill offers: whole and ground emmer, spelt, and rye, grits, cornmeal, and flours.

My CSA, run by Potomac Vegetable Farms, partners with many local operations to offer more products than just produce. Recently, they provisioned dried black beans and crowder peas sourced from The Farm at Sunnyside (@farmerchefcasey). And oh my God, they are the BEST black beans I have ever tasted. 

Which brings me to some gaps in local sourcing. If anyone knows where to find the following items locally in the region, please drop it in the comments section: lentils, beans (of any kind), dried peas (of any kind), petite couscous, steel-cut oats, barley, and quinoa. 

Finally, a couple things to note before seeking out local grains and legumes:

  1. Since they do not contain preservatives, they don’t keep as well or as long as the ones bought in the store. Yes, I invested in some large glass cannisters and, yes, I love them. But this isn’t necessary. Just make sure you have enough cool, dry storage space in your pantry and some room in the freezer as well.
  2. The local flours often require more in recipes, sometimes almost double. For example, when I made pancakes with the local flour, I needed close to four cups as opposed to the two cups of all-purpose flour the recipe called for.

things you can make with rice

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Local Veggie

Caesar Sauce

caesar salad sauce recipe one and a half slices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Caesar Sauce

caesar salad sauce recipe one and a half slices

What is Caesar “sauce?” You mean Caesar dressing… as in, Caesar salad? Or is this some kind of dipping sauce? And does it have anything to do with dill? Yes, all three! This is an all-purpose, HEALTHY, creamy, herby, Caesar-esque sauce for dressing salad, for dipping vegetables, and, yes, even for chicken wings. And it has become a weeknight meal staple in this house.

How can sauce be the centerpiece of a weeknight dinner?

Keep reading…

///Update: If you are looking for a more traditional Caesar dressing recipe, you can find it here. 

There are several core, buy-every-time-I’m-at-the-grocery-store ingredients in my kitchen. 0% (non-fat) plain Greek Yogurt is one of them. I eat a ton of it, mostly in homemade breakfast parfaits. Chobani, Fage, or Whole Foods brand will do. But most importantly, it serves two unique purposes: (1) It doubles as sour cream. That’s right. Anywhere you would put sour cream (chili, baked potato, sweet potato, quesadillas), just lop on a dollop of Greek yogurt instead; (2) It serves as the base for creamy sauces like this one.

Homemade Caesar dressing is delicious, especially when made with a non-fat base like Greek yogurt as opposed to Mayonnaise. With a few alterations, you can easily turn this into a dill sauce for dipping (which pairs phenomenally well with carrots or drizzled on baked potatoes). So take this where you want to take it with customizations following the base outlined below. And if you come up with something that you like, please share it in the comments section!

Steak Caesar Salad 1
Steak Caesar Salad 2

(local flat iron steak from the Whiffletree Farm meat CSA)

This sauce is integral to my mission to re-imagine the American weeknight dinner, a la Michael Pollan and Dan Barber. Simply put, putting meat at the center of every meal is not a good thing – not good for our bodies, not natural, and, most importantly, not good for the greater food system and its sustainability over time… our sustainability over time. Both Pollan and Barber state it more eloquently than I ever could, so for a quick dose of this philosophy, I recommend Season 1, Episode 2 of Chef’s Table on Netflix.

Telling World War II era Americans not to eat steak and potatoes is about as American as communism. But let’s not make it about our politics or our cultural identity. Let’s make it about our relationship with food and how, worldwide, it has gone astray. Food is highly commoditized, commercialized, and over-engineered. And our relationship with it is a product of convenience, indulgence, and excellent marketing (did you know that there is a sugar lobby right here in Washington, DC?!). 

So what can we do? How can we fix it? First and foremost, vote with our feet. Explore Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the local area. The Northern Virginia area has several and mine is, proudly, Potomac Vegetable Farms with a Whiffletree Farm meat share (supplemented by periodic trips to the Spring House Farm). And patronize truly local farm-to-table restaurants (The Restaurant at Patowmac Farm and Field & Main, you rock my world… even Fiola DC has allowed COVID to take it in a new farm-centric direction).

Potomac Vegetable Farms works in concert with many smaller farms nearby (it has meat, poultry, and eggs, not just vegetables). Using a CSA not only supports local farms but it forces us to eat more seasonally – more naturally – as opposed to running to the store for an imported ingredient anytime we want to make a dish. You’ll make tomato soup in the summer because that is when tomatoes are abundant. And guess what? Those tomatoes will taste SO much better. While CSAs typically require payment up front, they average out to the equivalent of store-bought groceries… because produce isn’t expensive; packaged food items are. Just be flexible and focus on your store-bought staples (like yogurt, in my case), letting the CSA contents drive the menu for the week. And don’t be afraid to put a baked potato, a sweet potato, or a Portobello mushroom at the center of your weeknight plate.

hmm… I got a TON of carrots this week… how will I use all these carrots?! Hey, I know a food blog for that… 😉🥕

what you need

> > > Base

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (Reggiano is best)

2 table spoons olive oil

1 garlic clove (raw or roasted)

Salt & black pepper to taste

> > For Caesar

2 teaspoons anchovy paste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

(optional) dash of Worcestershire sauce

> > For dipping sauce

1 tablespoon dried dill (or 2 tablespoons fresh dill)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sweet Hungarian paprika, to top

 

how to make it

For either variation, place all ingredients in high-speed blender (this is my favorite 3-in-1) and combine. 

The thickness will largely depend on the consistency of your yogurt (for example, Chobani is thinner where Fage makes a much thicker yogurt). Most often, the sauce will be too thick and require thinning. This can be done with water, milk (non-dairy like cashew, macadamia, or oat is fine), or by adding extra lemon juice and olive oil. 

Feel free to play with the amounts. Anchovy paste is one of the key ingredients to authentic Caesar dressing (but then, so is egg, if not in the sauce, in the salad itself). So if you like to anchovy it up, by all means. This recipe is tuned to my taste, with extra parmesan. I will also usually be heavy handed with the dill if making the sauce variation.

You can also roast the garlic clove in tinfoil for 10 minutes on 350 to deepen the garlic flavor.

Top either dressing or sauce with a sprinkle of paprika.

Sweet Potato Wedge Dippers
Carrot chips!
Carrot Chip Dippers

This sauce is integral to my mission to re-imagine the American weeknight dinner, a la Michael Pollan and Dan Barber. Simply put, putting meat at the center of every meal is not a good thing – not good for our bodies, not natural, and, most importantly, not good for the greater food system and its sustainability over time… our sustainability over time. Both Pollan and Barber state it more eloquently than I ever could, so for a quick dose of this philosophy, I recommend Season 1, Episode 2 of Chef’s Table on Netflix.

Telling World War II era Americans not to eat steak and potatoes is about as American as communism. But let’s not make it about our politics or our cultural identity. Let’s make it about our relationship with food and how, worldwide, it has gone astray. Food is highly commoditized, commercialized, and over-engineered. And our relationship with it is a product of convenience, indulgence, and excellent marketing (did you know that there is a sugar lobby right here in Washington, DC?!). 

So what can we do? How can we fix it? First and foremost, vote with our feet. Explore Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the local area. The Northern Virginia area has several and mine is, proudly, Potomac Vegetable Farms with a Whiffletree Farm meat share (supplemented by periodic trips to the Spring House Farm). And patronize truly local farm-to-table restaurants (The Restaurant at Patowmac Farm and Field & Main, you rock my world… even Fiola DC has allowed COVID to take it in a new farm-centric direction).

Potomac Vegetable Farms works in concert with many smaller farms nearby (it has meat, poultry, and eggs, not just vegetables). Using a CSA not only supports local farms but it forces us to eat more seasonally – more naturally – as opposed to running to the store for an imported ingredient anytime we want to make a dish. You’ll make tomato soup in the summer because that is when tomatoes are abundant. And guess what? Those tomatoes will taste SO much better. While CSAs typically require payment up front, they average out to the equivalent of store-bought groceries… because produce isn’t expensive; packaged food items are. Just be flexible and focus on your store-bought staples (like yogurt, in my case), letting the CSA contents drive the menu for the week. And don’t be afraid to put a baked potato, a sweet potato, or a Portobello mushroom at the center of your weeknight plate.

hmm… I got a TON of carrots this week… how will I use all these carrots?! Hey, I know a food blog for that… 😉🥕

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