Hello Everyone,
Wow! We had another great market last week! It is always a pleasure to meet new folks and to see faithful, returning market visitors. Thank you for contributing to the success of this community-building endeavor.
This week, Colleen will be making pizza for dinner. She will top one with pesto and breaded eggplant, and the other will have fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Colleen's hot, delicious dinners have been a huge hit, and market-goers consistently say how nice it is to have fresh, hot, affordable food to enjoy with friends on Wednesday nights.
Sarah will be bringing more baked goodies. This week she'll have biscotti at the market. Now, we just need to figure out how to move our espresso machine over there and voila! No, just kidding about the espresso machine, but maybe someday.... Sarah is a talented baker, and her fresh goodies are a real treat.
Sofya continues to bake her awesome brownies. At age 8, she's basically got the process and the ingredients memorized, and it has been fun for me to see her using a recipe from my old, professional baking days to start her own little business. Come try one if you haven't had one yet this summer. You'll love it!
Peter will be back, using the same chocolate chip cookie recipe to make cookie bars. He's going for a different look and baking experience, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out. If you like butter, chocolate and little vanilla, stop by his table for a sample and enjoy.
My offerings are still a work in progress, but I'm sure I'll have yogurt-- Greek and regular-- and blackberry-peach oatmeal squares. Right now, I'm making lightly sweetened plain yogurt which I will strain and then fill in 8oz jars that have a good dollop of this year's peach jam on the bottom. The jam is very peachy, and not overly sweet, so I've sweetened the yogurt just enough to take the edge off of the tartness, I hope, creating a smooth, balanced flavor with the peaches. I'll also have some Greek maple-vanilla bean yogurt in 8 ounce jars as well as plain and vanilla, regular style, in 32 ounce jars.
I will also have Celtic Kraut in both quarts and pints. I hope to have kombucha, though it seems like the "watched kombucha never fizzes" so that remains a question for Wednesday. I do have one last 750ml bottle of strawberry-lemonade, and that will probably be it until the lemons get good again in the winter. And then (drum roll please), I have a giant crock with a new batch of kimchi going and a 2 gallon crock with (HOORAY!!! Imagine me doing a happy dance here!) the season's first fermented cucumbers! If these aren't ready for this market, they'll definitely be done by the upcoming market on September 4th. So, stay tuned for that.
Something that is important for fans of fermented foods to keep in mind is that it is very difficult, and maybe not even ideal, to create fermented foods using seasonal crops that taste exactly the same. So, this batch of kimchi, made with napa from my garden, may be different than the last batch which was made with napa that ripened much earlier in the season and came from Steve Young's garden. In addition to the bacterial and nutritional boost that fermentation brings to veggies, it is an effective method of food preservation, so part of my work is to use crops that I can grow or gather locally whenever possible. I do use very similar spicing and salting patterns, but not always the same, so feel free to try what I've brought and see how you like it. I welcome your input and am grateful for your feedback on anything I've made.
I'm hoping that Constancia will join us again with her wonderful goat cheese and her big, beautiful personality. And Jenna too with her lovely and fresh foods and flowers. It seems likely too that Karen will be there with her Mountain Woman Bars, maple syrup and eggs, and maybe Mike as well with his flavorful jalapeno sauce.
So, come to the market if you can this week and see how it looks, feels and tastes to be there. We'll be celebrating the start of school and will enjoy your company and ideas about our work.
I look forward to seeing you there!
In health,
Beki Auclair
Vermont Fermentation Adventures
www.RebeccaAuclair.com
Oct 24, 2024, 3 to 4:30 PM
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