Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the week in Vermont. My family and I are away on Long Island, and the weather and company have been wonderful. Thankfully, our neighbor Sophie is holding down the fort at our house, taking good care of our four legged and two legged friends.
Last week's market got rained our by an afternoon thunderstorm that wouldn't quit, but this week's vendors are ready and willing, weather permitting. Come by the Moretown School on Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 to 7:30 to see what they've got for you.
Jenna will have her beautiful flowers, kale, Swiss chard, eggplant, summer squash, basil, and maybe some peas. Just last night for dinner, we had a giant plate of tomatoes with slabs of fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a lovely leaf of basil on top of each. The basil made the dish! Its licorice-y flavor and gentle green crunch were the perfect foil for the creamy mozzarella and tangy tomatoes. Jenna is a talented gardener and steward of the earth, so take a look at her elegant table when you come by the market.
Karen will be with us with her homemade Mountain Woman and Mountain Man bars, delicious maple syrup, eggs and herbs. Her bars make an excellent, hearty snack for a long car trip, hike or day in the garden.
The farmers from Peacock Pastures in Duxbury, Wendy and David Tidhar, will have their wonderful frozen meats on hand. This week, they will have frozen pasture-raised chicken and 100% grass fed beef. The chicken will be sold as whole broilers, while the beef will be sold by the cut. They will have ground beef, stew meat, steaks and one brisket available. You can also talk to them about lamb and turkey that will be available later on this year.
Lalu Farm will be with us too, with their great goat cheese, honey and goat milk Dulce de Leche. I just heard recently through the grapevine that Lalu Farm has a CSA, as well. If you are interested in learning more about it, talk to Kevin or Constancia at the market on Wednesday.
Sooner or later, I'm hoping that Mike will join us with his flavorful and pungent jalapeño hot sauce. When I talked to him earlier in the season, he had to wait for his peppers to ripen in order to make up his 2014 batch.
I'll miss this week's market, but I'll look forward to seeing everyone next week, at our first market in August. Meanwhile, I've discovered the wonders of black currants and wanted to share this new discovery with everyone from afar.
We've had our black currant bush for years, but it took awhile for us to figure out what to do with them. Since we've gotten a better sense of when they are ripe, we have been enjoying them more and more, just off the bush. Then I read an article in Local Banquet by Nancy Hayden from The Farm in Between about using homemade fruit syrups to flavor snow cones. (In this same Local Banquet, you'll find an article about the wonders of seaberries featuring Moretown's Ben Falk!) Mmmmmm, snow cones..... Of course, it was about a ba-zillion degrees out when I read this article, and I began looking on ebay and Craigslist immediately for an ice shaver. Well, I've since set my homemade, gourmet snow cone aspirations aside, but remain intrigued by homemade simple syrups with homegrown or locally harvested fruit. And now I've got the perfect use for the mass of black currants our little bush is giving us.
To make black currant syrup take one part black currants and one part water and add to that ½ part sugar. Put this mixture in a pot over medium high heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, allowing the liquid to reduce in volume by one half. Pass the syrup through a strainer and viola! That's it. You could put the hot mixture in hot sterilized jars and it would likely seal. I put the syrup in recycled bottles, and we use it as a flavor for seltzer, kombucha, yogurt and ice cream. Last night we had it with fresh berries over mango ice cream. Ahhhh. The wonders of vacation! The really great bonus of this recipe is that you can use the strained berries and seeds as an instant jam which is great on sammies or in yogurt or anywhere else you'd put jam. It is seedy and sweet and dark and delicious. I love that there is almost no waste too.
I hope everyone has a great week and has a chance to stop by the market. I'll look forward to seeing you all in August.
Be well,
Beki Auclair
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