Category Archives: Newsletter

New this week: Goldflower watermelons, Sun Jewel asian melons, and homemade tomato sauce at Quaker Valley, Formosa plums at Reid. Hot peppers.

I’ve seen recipes for granita for years, and it never made sense to me: how could a homemade slushie of scraped fruit juice be anything special? Then this heatwave settled in, I tried it, and I am now enjoying heroic popularity amongst adults and children at the pool with my watermelon granitas and last night’s hit: Nectarine, Basil and Lemon Granita with a couple peaches. No recipe needed: take your overripe peaches and/or nectarines or any other fruit, try to slip off some of the skin to eat on the spot and not overwhelm your granita with fiber, blenderize with a handful of Italian or Lemon basil, a couple lemons worth of juice, a tablespoon or so of sugar, and some water. Change the ingredients willy-nilly depending on what you have: honey works fine for the sweetener, plums would be great, add limes, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon or cardamom depending on the fruit- try the combinations at Pleasant Pops to figure out what you like! If it’s tasty, pour into a piece of tupperware and stick it in the freezer. Most recipes say to stir it every half hour for four hours, but if like me you forget it’s in there ’til the next day, just scrape and chip it with fork tines ’til it’s a pile of sno-cone stuff, and serve. It’s perfectly good vegan, but you can also do the traditional Italian thing and serve it with a dollop of unsweetened whipping cream, now it’s kinda like a frozen Italian Cream Soda.

Have you been tasting the gooseberries and thinking they are delicious but don’t know what to do with them? Mrs. Weems gave me this recipe while floating in the pool last night: drop them in a pie crust (which you make in the morning, in the AC), lightly crush them so several crack open, add 2:1 sugar (though some recipes have you go all the way up to 1:1) and distribute gently, sprinkle your favorite crumble all over (oatmeal, brown sugar, and butter), then bake. Am thinking I could do this in a cast iron pan, leave out the pie crust, and bake on the grill too.

Events:

• Lamont Park Deluxe plays from 9-11 or until the heat threatens to melt beeswax out of their accordions, then AC Valdez strums and croons from 11-1.
• Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to check out your bike and help you tune it up. Get an Rx for 10% off all your bike needs at Old School Hardware across the street – inner tubes, pumps, tools, lights, and more!

Local Foods:
Pleasant Pops: Wow! Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho on a stick. Sounds refreshing! If it sounds doubtful to you, I want you to remember what a smash hit the Cucumber Chile was. Plus Summer Peach, Watermelon Mint, and Watermelon Cantaloupe.

DC’s Field To Fork Network: Beet Street Gardens are back representing the urban farm network!

People’s Bao: Chinese steamed buns and pork tamales using tender, slow roasted pork shoulder or delicious savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Goldflower watermelons and Sun Jewel asian melons! Fredi made some of her delicious, fresh-tasting tomato sauce! Lots of blackberries, yellow and white nectarines, yellow peaches, red currants, ground cherries, red and golden raspberries. Sweet onions, red, white and blue potatoes, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey.

Truck Patch Farms: Purple and green bell peppers, jalapeños, Cherry Bomb peppers, chili peppers, eggplants, beefsteak tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes. Italian, purple, and lemon basil. Spinach, mesclun, arugula. Kale and Swiss chard. Red, white, and yellow spring onions. Zucchini and squash. Red, golden and striped chioggia beets. Purple, yellow and green beans.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: FRESH chickens, whole or parts of breast,thigh, wings, liver. Beef jerky. Eggs. NEW and back by popular demand: Andouille sausage. Pork hotdogs, smoked bacon, smoked nitrate-free bacon, pork chops, smoked pork chops, nitrate-free smoked porkchops, pork steaks, sausage, country ribs, spare ribs, shoulder butt roast, boneless shoulder roast, boneless and bone-in loin roasts, scrapple, pork roll and more.

Earth Spring Farm: Salsa in a Box! Tomatoes, jalapeños, garlic and onions ready to chop and eat. Delicious Sungold yellow pear cherry tomatoes and Black Cherry cherry tomatoes. Orange Blossom and Cherokee Purple slicing tomatoes that go great with your quick pesto. Basil, zucchini, cucumber, summer squash, green beans, potatoes, Asian eggplant and cheese.

Groff’s Content Farm: Lamb, beef, chickens, eggs, pork and tallow soap.

Reid Orchard: Glenglo yellow peaches, Spring Snow white peaches, Shiro plums, Formosa plums, white and yellow nectarines, blackberries, red raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, Lodi and Pristine apples.

Richfield Farm: Watermelons, cantaloupes, okra, green bell peppers. Green beans, yellow beans. Summer squash, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet onions, blueberries, corn, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes. Sunflowers, zinnias, snapdragons, bouquets.

Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company: Handmade, artisanal goat cheese. Fresh chevre and ricotta cheese and delicious crottins and brie-like wedges of creamy, soft-ripened cheese.

Atwater’s Bread: Naturally leavened, hand shaped loaves like Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, more. Ned Atwater does slow fermentation with carefully tended starters and wild yeast, organic stone ground flour from a family mill in North Carolina. Also yeasted breads like the slightly sweet, traditional Irish Struan bread. Great scones, muffins, cookies, brownies, granola and bagels.