More than a place to buy local products and meet your farmer, a farmers' market is a place where longterm friendships can grow. In this remembrance, contributor Anthony Boutard recalls Ayers Creek Farm's longtime customer Martie Sucec, she of the blackberry slump and a dedicated fan of the farm's berries.
We decided to become vendors at the newly formed Hillsdale Farmers’ Market, debuting on Bastille Day 2002. Our first market e-mail was sent to our friend Martie Sucec. Martie loved Boysenberries above all other fruit, and we were advising her that we would have a flat set aside that weekend. We kept her updated week-to-week, and soon her friends and other customers asked to be included.
Martie Sucec.
A lay editor at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Public Health Research, Martie had a deep appreciation for language, a loathing of jargon, and a kind manner. Any author worth their salt would work hard for her approval. When asked how he started Coming into the Country, John McPhee quipped he started with “Dear Mom,” whiting out that salutation when he was done. My market essays often started with “Dear Martie” in mind.
When Chester season started that year, Martie came back the next week with a slump and a couple dozen copies of the recipe which she had gleaned from an old edition of Gourmet (recipe below). Martie ritualized the gesture and for fourteen years we would return home with a slump made the first Chesters of the season. Vendors who counted knew her by name.
Carol first encountered Martie 25 years ago—meet is too feeble a word to describe such an event—and came home describing the neighborhood chair of the Multnomah Village Neighborhood Association as an amazing person. Later, I had my own encounter and shared Carol’s sentiment. At one point, I told Martie that she reminded me of General Anna, a central character in Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War, a book I had purchased at a school book fair and read as a 5th grader. A couple of days later, having read the book, Martie chuckled about how much she enjoyed Anna, a principled and determined resolver of conflict.
Purple martins at Ayers Creek.
Martie died in April. That same week a purple martin arrived at the farm, checking out one of the bird boxes used by kestrels, starlings and flickers. A week later, he returned accompanied by his mate and, if I am interpreting their behavior correctly, they are busy feeding chicks. Those handsome, gregarious birds will be associated with memories of Martie, our handsome, gregarious friend.
Martins have a quality described as site fidelity, with the birds returning to the nesting site year-after-year. The martins, and Marties fondness for Boysenberries, slumps, grey shallots and Sibley squash will keep her in our mind all year.
4 c. fresh blackberries (2-3 pints) 2 tsp. lemon juice (add some zest, if you like more lemony flavor) 3/4 c. sugar, depending on the sweetness of berries, or to taste 1 c. all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 3/4 c. milk (whole, 2%, hemp or soy) room temperature 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 375°.
Put berries in an ungreased 5 to 6-cup casserole, gratin dish, deep dish or ceramic pie plate and sprinkle evenly with about 1/2 cup of the sugar. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar into a medium bowl. Add milk and melted butter and whisk until smooth, then pour over berries (don’t worry if berries are not completely covered). Bake slump in middle of oven until top is golden, 35-45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool 20 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
It's high season in Oregon for berries, folks, and while I don't have an argument with pies, crisps or cobblers—drop one off any time, really!—in my family's opinion there's no higher or better use for fresh berries than finishing a summer's feast with fresh berry shortcakes.
The buttery, lightly sweet shortcakes, which can also do double duty as breakfast scones, come together quickly in a food processor. Shower them with a scattering of lightly sugared berries and a plop of whipped cream (or ice cream, depending on your druthers) to make these ephemeral seasonal delights shine.
Whether you've got raspberries, loganberries, blackberries, tayberries, strawberries, boysenberries, blueberries or—I know I'm forgetting some—a mixture of two or more, save a couple of pints out of your next flat of berries to make this startlingly simple and stunningly delicious classic.
Berry Shortcake
For the shortcakes: 2 1/2 c. flour 1 Tbsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 8 Tbsp. (1 stick) frozen butter or margarine, cut up 1/4 c. sugar 2/3 c. whole milk
For the berries: 2 pints berries 1/4 c. sugar (adjust according to sweetness of berries) Whipped cream or ice cream
Preheat oven to 425°.
Put flour, balking powder, salt and sugar in bowl of food processor. Pulse four or five times to combine. Add butter or margarine and pulse several times until the mixture resembles cornmeal. With processor running, add milk in a stream. Keep processor running until the dough comes together in a soft mass.
Remove dough from processor, place on floured surface and form into a soft ball shape. Divide dough ball in half and gently pat out each half with your hands into six-inch disks (they will be about 1/2"-5/8" thick). With a butcher knife, slice each disk into six triangle-shaped wedges. On a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, place wedges slightly apart for crispier sides, touching for soft sides. I usually separate them by 1/8" and they puff up into wedges that break apart easily. Bake about 12 minutes or until tops are medium brown. Remove to racks to cool.
While the shortcakes are baking, put the berries into a large mixing bowl and add sugar. Using a spatula, gently fold the sugar into the berries. Allow to macerate for at least an hour (you can also place berries in the refrigerator until assembling). Using one wedge per serving, slice wedges in half lengthwise and place on individual serving plates or bowls. Scatter berries over the top and drizzle with juice that collects in the bottom of bowl. Top with whipped cream or ice cream as desired.
I've seen folks posting pictures on their social media feeds of some early season grains and produce from Ayers Creek Farm, so I was glad when the following update from contributor Anthony Boutard arrived in my in-box.
Around this time of year I receive inquiries regarding the upcoming season. Might as well get a jump on the questions. Here is how things look in the field.
A tote of organic potting mix from OBC Northwest.
After dealing with last year’s disastrous brand name starting mix, chronicled earlier, this year we purchased our potting mix from OBC Northwest. OBC, once the Oregon Bag Company, morphed into supplying greenhouse supplies when cleaning and reusing bags became a historical artifact. No lofty claims advanced by creative artwork on the package (below left). It is a simple and generic organic mix in a plain white tote which we supplement on our own by adding some bonemeal, kelp, humic acid and supplemental wetting agent.
The wetting agent allowed in organic farming is derived from yucca and is a very important component of the mix. In soilless potting mixes, the yucca extract promotes the even wetting of the peat and compost. At transplanting, it keeps the area around the roots moist so they will grow easily into the surrounding native soil. As the yucca extract is an organic compound, it is perishable, breaking down over time, rendering the mix stale after a few months. At that point it is nearly impossible to resaturate the soilless mix properly. The water just passes through as in a sieve, though it is not obvious that the mix has not absorbed adequate water. Refreshing the wetting agent is an insurance policy. The other problem with last year's mix was low-grade compost. The company was obviously cutting corners to meet demand.
Chester blackberries.
The peppers and tomatoes are now in the field and look great. The first run of direct sown crops—the corns, beans and chickpeas—are in the ground as well. The rain has come at the right times. Mustard, durum and soft red wheat are sown in November, and are also in fine shape. Sometimes a planting season will, by chance, progress smoothly, much in the same way as a Saturday delivery run when we happen to be in the van for every aria in the Met’s broadcast of La Boheme. Some years, on the other hand, are a challenge, a delivery with no relief from unsatisfying driving music.
The pollination of the perennial fruits occurs April through June. For the small fruits, the crop looks excellent. Prompting us to buy another freezer to increase production of Loganberry and Boysenberry preserves. Plums and apples have a good set. The cherries were in bloom during several frosty nights and the crop is sparse, noncommercial. The Chester blackberry bloom is beginning, the hives were placed last week, and this run of dry, warm weather is helpful.
In early May, we were inspected for compliance with the rules of the National Organic Program (NOP). This is our 20th year as certified organic growers. The first four years preceded the NOP, and compliance was measured against the standards laid out by the International Federation of Organic Movements (IFOAM). Every few years, the certifying agency decides they need to bust you for something. Predictable and infuriating, but nothing personal.
Marionberries.
This year, our certifier decided that we needed to have an Organic Handler Plan in addition to the Organic Crop Plan. Never mind that every crop we sell is grown by us, and every detail required in the handling plan is already covered in the crop plan, making the handler plan a pointless redundancy. As an aside, it is very hard to be a commercial farmer who does not handle the crops they grow. For 19 years this was deemed sensible by a succession of reviewers and inspectors, but now it is obvious to a new inspector that has never seen seen our farm that we might be perpetuating an epic fraud.
With a well-articulated snarl, the handler plan was submitted. Apparently, a big potential for fraud was averted as a result. Now we have to put a sticker in the bags denoting the lot number. Simply adding “Lot number 2018” will placate the bean counters. Without a handler plan, this fraud preventing measure would have gone uncorrected. Navigating life, it is best not to get hung up on these arbitrary indignities.
We will be scheduling some open days again this year, coinciding with the early cane berry ripening, the first week for the Chesters, early September for the Astianas and grapes, an early October date, culminating with days before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In between, Josh Alsberg at Rubinette Produce (2340 NE Sandy) maintains a good selection of our goods—fresh and dry. Jim Dixon at Real Good Food also carries some odds and ends in his new store on NE Couch at 10th.
A ferocious organizer and labor activist for more than 30 years, Guillen founded Community to Community Development in Washington, a group led by women of color fighting for better farm-working conditions.
The phone rang at the grassroots food justice organization in Rosalinda Guillen’s office at Community to Community Development (C2C) in Bellingham, Washington, in August 2017. The person on the line said a group of 70 farmworkers was walking down the road leading away from Sarbanand Farms, a large, corporate-owned blueberry farm in the area.
A C2C community gathering.
Farmworker justice leader Rosalinda Guillen, the executive director of C2C, soon arrived on site with her staff to find that the men had been fired for complaining about mistreatment after the death of one of their fellow workers, 28-year-old Honesto Silva Ibarra. Silva Ibarra had died of dehydration from being forced to work 12- to 14-hour days in the hot, smoky conditions caused by fires that were sweeping through the region that summer.
Because the men had been fired, they had lost their visa status and would be considered undocumented. C2C immediately set up an encampment for the men and put out the word to the local community.
“We had an amazing outpouring of support,” Guillen said. “People brought money, food, tents, chairs, sleeping bags. Doctors and nurses volunteered to check the workers out. They appeared with cars and vans to drive them to the clinic, to the hospitals.”
A ferocious organizer and labor activist for more than 30 years, Guillen, now 68, founded C2C as an organization led by women of color, a place-based, grassroots organization committed to strengthen local and global movements toward social, economic, and environmental justice.
Guillen cutting a “Campesino Power” cake during a C2C Farmworker Tribunal.
In 1995, Guillen won the first-ever farmworkers’ collective bargaining agreement in the state of Washington with Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery after helping to organize its workers and after an eight-year boycott of its wines. Previously, she organized strawberry workers for the United Farm Workers (UFW) in California, eventually serving as political and legislative vice president of the union’s executive board.
“I’ve always appreciated that Rosalinda can speak to the nuances and complexities of a just agriculture system, knowing that not everyone sees the same path forward,” said Kerstin Lindgren, a strategic organizing researcher at Service Employees International Union (SEIU). “But [she] doesn’t lose sight of a vision for justice that is more broadly shared.”
In the case of the terminated blueberry pickers, C2C helped educate the community about what had happened by using live feeds on Facebook and protests at state agencies. It held community forums where the farmworkers testified about their experience, medical workers talked about what extreme dehydration looks like, and staff from farmworker justice organizations explained the H-2A program—a visa allowing a foreign national to enter the U.S. for temporary or seasonal agricultural work.
“People saw it—they saw what happened,” Guillen said.
The attention enabled C2C and a coalition of other organizations to introduce Senate Bill 5438 in the Washington legislature, which would create a state Office of H-2A Compliance and Farm Labor to provide oversight and monitoring of the H-2A program in the state. The bill passed in May and will take effect at the end of July.
“Community to Community has made my life real,” said Modesto Hernandez, a farmworker and member of C2C, who had suffered devastating personal injury, losing his feet to frostbite from unsafe working conditions, as well as experiencing discrimination. “Without their support I would not be able to think positively about my future. Now I know that I have the ability to take care of myself, I don’t need charity—I need fairness, and C2C has shown me how to raise my voice and get people and agencies to be fair.”
Destiny Comes Knocking
Guillen and her seven siblings grew up living in migrant labor camps following her father, a farmworker from Mexico, on the migrant circuit around the United States. Despite this fact, at the age of 37, Rosalinda Guillen had never heard of Cesar Chavez.
Modesto Hernandez received a 2018 Seeds of Justice Award from C2C.
But on the day Anne Atkeson, a recruiter for the Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, knocked on Guillen’s door in rural Whatcom County, Washington, Guillen was living on a chicken ranch with three sons while working as the manager of data processing at Skagit State Bank. It was the third time that Atkeson had appeared on Guillen’s doorstep, desperate to find a person of color to help with local organizing for Jackson’s campaign.
“I honestly was not even registered to vote at the time,” Guillen said. But something about Atkeson’s persistence made Guillen invite her in. “I figured I’d let her talk 15 minutes, then she can leave and leave me alone.”
“But the minute [Atkeson] said, ‘What do you think about the United States having a Black president in the White House?’ those words were like a whip or something,” she recalled. “I looked at her and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
The idea of a Black president resonated with Guillen, she said, because for her and many others, being a farmworker in virtually all-white rural Washington meant being treated as a second-class citizen as well as experiencing outright racism, unequal treatment, and disrespect.
She registered to vote and started going to campaign meetings, eventually running for—and winning—election as a precinct committee officer where she brought in the rural Democratic Party Caucus for Jesse Jackson.
“I loved it,” Guillen said of her work registering voters and distributing literature. “It was so invigorating talking about democracy and the Constitution and racism and Jesse Jackson and opportunities for people of color. I didn’t know this world existed. I was infused with a whole new identity. That’s where I learned about Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement.”
"What Would Cesar Do?"
Guillen founded a Whatcom County chapter of the National Rainbow Coalition, which had grown out of the Jackson campaign, where she worked on several local electoral campaigns. When she heard of the death of Chavez in 1993, Guillen quit her job at the bank and went to work full time for the coalition. It was there that she was approached by farmworkers at Chateau Ste. Michelle winery, the largest winery in the state of Washington, who wanted the coalition’s help in supporting their boycott of the winery.
Through that campaign, she met Joseph Moore, a Vietnam War veteran and antiwar activist who taught her to view organizing through a strategic, nonviolent lens, using direct action and campaigns to change structures and systems. Guillen and Moore eventually married.
The Rainbow Coalition chapter signed a collective bargaining agreement in December 1995, the first-ever union agreement with that winery in Washington. But because the Rainbow Coalition was not a bonafide union, Guillen and her partners approached the United Farmworkers of America (UFW), whose leadership was dumbfounded that a local coalition could pull off such a sweeping and historic agreement.
“They didn’t believe us. And because they’re organizers, they asked, where’s the list? What’s your leadership, what’s your base, how did you do it?” she said. “I pulled out the book, Conquering Goliath [by Fred Ross] and the book [Cesar Chavez: Autobiography Of La Causa] by Jacques Levy. We had them in the office and many, many times, we would go to those two books to say, ‘Okay, what would Cesar do in this situation?’”
To expand her work, Guillen in 1999 moved to Sacramento, California, to work with the UFW. As vice president of the UFW board, Guillen worked to successfully amend the California Agricultural Labor Relations (CALR) Act to impose binding arbitration and mediation on unions and employers if an impasse was declared, since a number of impasses in collective bargaining had occurred since CALR had first been enacted. It was the first time the Act had been amended since it was written and passed in 1975, which former Governor Gray Davis then signed into law in 2002.
She became increasingly devoted to the ideals that Chavez stood for. “I[felt like I] talked to him on a daily basis about how do we move forward,” Guillen said of her constantly referencing Chavez’s books and speeches, as well as the people who had worked with the labor leader. “What are the challenges? What would he do in this changing political climate? How are we as farmworkers going to be at the decision-making table and be seen as an equal stakeholder in the production of food?”
“We are the ones on the ground. We are the ones that know our truth. And we are the ones that know what needs to happen,” she continued, describing Chavez’s fight against pesticides in large-scale agriculture. “It’s like we’re the canaries in the mine. You’re putting us in a position where we’re dying, and then you’re going to die next.”
Guillen believes strongly that as stakeholders, farmworkers need to be involved in any decision-making that has to do with the food production. “We can’t just be tools,” she said. “We can’t just be another resource that’s owned by the agricultural industry to make more profit. We are people.”
Guillen’s trip to Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2000 to present at the World Social Forum (WSF) on behalf of the UFW on the conditions of farm workers was, for her, life-changing. She was astounded by the dynamism she saw in the landless workers’ movement as well as the model of a participatory democracy in the People’s Movement Assemblies—developed as a decision-making space of the WSF. Additionally, the efforts to build policy from the bottom up were real-world examples of the ideas she had been formulating. She couldn’t wait to get back and, as a member of their governing board of the UFW, introduce those models to the union.
Unfortunately, Guillen said the union wasn’t interested.
Community to Community
Disheartened, and concerned that the growth of industrial agriculture in California would soon migrate north to Washington, she decided to leave the union and return home to Whatcom County. There, in 2004, she opened C2C to build on the work of Chavez and establish a real-world model of the values of collective action she learned at the WSF.
“The whole point of Community to Community is to plant seeds, to grow little plants of leadership and let them flourish,” Guillen said, based around a structure she calls ecofeminism, empowering the feminine in both men and women, and by partnering with Mother Nature herself.
At C2C, women make the decisions and men support and give input. C2C has been instrumental in voter registration and education drives in the local farmworker community, particularly focusing on women, and has partnered with Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) to promote fair trade in agricultural production by developing a Food Justice Certified label so shoppers can easily see that a food product has not exploited workers or the land.
It also means putting the means of production into the hands of farmworkers through the establishment of worker-owned co-ops, which own and work the land and sell the harvest. The first, established in 2017, is Tierra y Libertad (“land and liberty”), currently farming 65 acres in Whatcom County and producing its first commercial harvest this year.
“Without land we cannot fully achieve all our dreams,” said Ramon Torres, President of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farmworker union led by indigenous families. “These berries are proof of our skills to grow our own food. We want to be able to sustain ourselves economically—we do not need bosses, just each other working together.”
“The legacy of injustice in agriculture and the complexity of solutions is definitely a challenge,” said SEIU’s Lindgren. “But C2C has had an impact locally in very concrete ways—and more broadly by creating connections and bridges, sharing knowledge, getting people involved in the movement in meaningful ways, and being an inspiration.”
Lindgren added that she is struck by Guillen’s “sense of justice and her confident determination that we could have an organization that modeled what we wanted our agriculture system to look like—that is, an organization where farmers, farmworkers, businesses, retailers, and other stakeholders all came together equally, through both formal and informal channels.”
Now at almost 70, Guillen is starting to reflect not only on her legacy but on the future of C2C and its place in the overall story of the farmworkers who have built our agricultural system.
“My goal is to have a team that is led by farmworkers and hand them the structure that we built, and let them run with it,” she said. “Because we don’t know what the future brings. We don’t know the shifting political changes. All we can do is be nimble, to be consistent in our values and our principles and to try to do the best that we can.”
“The ultimate goal is that people be able to eat goodness,” Guillen said, referring to food that is healthy for the people who grow, harvest, and eat it, as well as for their communities and for the planet as a whole. “Your plate of food in front of you is a reflection of what’s going on in your community.”
I planted chives in my garden a couple of years ago because I love the color and onion-y bite the chopped greens bring to green and grain salads, hot or cold vegetable dishes, eggs, or pasta. So when the purple pompoms of their blossoms started to appear, it seemed like there should be a better use for them than simply as a garnish, which would really only use a few of them. (I'm not a big garnish person, anyway, since most food I make around here disappears before I can "scatter artistically" as Martha Stewart might suggest.)
Chive blossoms in my garden.
Doing a bit of research, I found suggestions for making infused vinegar and oil using the chive blossoms and stems which can then be used to make a vinaigrette for salads and vegetables. The vinegar picks up a gorgeous rhubarb-red tint from the blossoms, and the oil gains a light chive flavor from a mix of blossoms and chopped stems, which would be fabulous for dipping crusty bread, Italian-style, or drizzling over crostata or grilled fish. Our house vinaigrette recipe would be perfect using the oil and substituting the vinegar for the lemon juice.
Infuse, strain. Done!
Like most infusions, this is dead simple to prepare, requiring simply blending the chives with oil or vinegar and giving it a few days to infuse. Make enough and you can fill small jars to share with friends!
Chive Blossom Vinegar and Chive Oil
Clip blossoming chives near the base of the stem, trimming off brown or dried parts. Pick off blossoms. Chop stems into 1/2" lengths.
For vinegar, pack blossoms into pint jar (or jars, depending on how many blossoms you have and how much vinegar you'll use). Fill jar with vinegar to within 1/2" of top. I used white wine vinegar, but some recipes call for white vinegar, which to my taste would be too strong; others call for white balsamic vinegar. Seal with lid, but not too tightly, to allow vinegar to breathe. Store in cool, dark place for two weeks. Strain into clean jar(s) and seal with lid(s). Keep up to six months in a cupboard away from heat or light.
For oil, place chopped chives, a few blossoms and enough oil to cover in a blender. Blend on high until completely pulverized then add more oil to thin it. Pour into lidded container and place in refrigerator for four days. Bring to room temperature, strain through fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth into medium bowl or pint measuring cup, then pour strained oil into ice cube tray and freeze. Pop frozen cubes out of trays and place in zip-lock bag. Store in freezer and thaw as needed.
It wasn't an auspicious beginning to a meeting. As I sat down to talk with Josh Alsberg, aka "Fruit Monkey" and proprietor of Rubinette Produce in the wondrous land of food that is Providore Fine Foods, he said he had sad news.
"Strawberries are done," he deadpanned.
Hood strawberries.
My shocked expression caused him to quickly add, "I mean Hoods. The heat cut them off." Then Alsberg assured me that we will be seeing other varieties like Seascapes and Albions through the summer and into September, though the harvest this year is looking slimmer than usual—the word he used was "trickle"—so he's advising you strawberry addicts out there to get to the farmers' markets on the early side to get your fix.
In happier news, he said the bounty of other berries is about to bury us, and he's started to see raspberries, blackberries, tayberries and loganberries on farmers' fresh sheets. He expects marionberries and local blueberries to appear en masse by the 4th of July, and the "bloobs," as we refer to them here at home, should stick around well into August.
Blueberries ahoy!
A caveat: Alsberg emphasizes that the summer's heat will affect all the berries—it can make strawberries more woody. He said the best time to buy berries at the markets is on the early side while they're still cool, then process them soon after you get home so they're not sitting around in the heat. As for freezing, his advice is to spread the berries out on sheet trays—the industry refers to it as "IQF" or "Individually Quick Freeze"—before freezing and bagging. (I hasten to add that Monsieur Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm would disagree…)
Cherries aplenty.
Alsberg also crows that "cherries are on!" and we should be seeing local—he includes Washington's Yakima-area fruit in that definition—red-fleshed varieties like Attikas, Royal Brooks and Chelans at farmers' market stalls. Pro tip: Alsberg shares that local cherries tend to be more expensive at the beginning of the season when the harvest is just getting going, so if you can hold off until after July 4th, you should see prices begin to drop somewhat. (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Costata romanesco squash.
It's not all fruit out there, either, and despite his Fruit Monkey moniker, Alsberg is equally excited about the coming avalanche of vegetables about to bury us in local green (and yellow and red and…). We're in the throes of squash season, he says, with zucchini, crookneck, eight-ball (a type of ball-shaped zucchini), pattypan and costata romanesco (a ribbed green summer variety) flooding in. You'll also find alliums in abundance, with scapes of all sorts—leek, shallot, garlic, etc.—sticking around for a bit, soon to be overshadowed by fresh, as opposed to cured, Walla Wallas, red onions, scallions and fresh shallots.
Purple sprouting broccoli.
There is the slightest whisper about local tomatoes starting to appear, but Alsberg said that it'll be mid-July before they'll be available in any quantity. Peas, asparagus and favas, those fleeting bright green delights of spring, are on their way out, as are the spring roots like radishes and turnips, but cucumbers are coming and local lettuces are in their glory right now. Romano beans and their compatriots are just starting to appear, as are all the herbs, including my favorites, basil and tarragon, along with local celery and carrots, as well as newer faces like sprouting cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli (referred to as PSB in certain circles).
Alsberg didn't realize he'd made "ze leetle joke" when he said that "new potatoes are starting to turn up" (ha!), but shoppers should find yellow, red and fingerlings aplenty. With warming temperatures, rhubarb will be getting scarce, but don't despair, local eggplant is coming, as are melons (by the end of July) and apricots.
A rainbow of potato varieties.
Other bits and bobs to look for include orach, a red-leaved plant in the same family as spinach and chard, and arugula. Local corn will be coming around the end of July, as will the plethora of peppers from sweet to hot. You'll start seeing plums in mid-July with the full panoply appearing in August along with table grapes.
My advice? Boot up your spreadsheets and make a plan to use some of this local goodness now with schemes to preserve some for winter!
For once I'm not going to give you a lengthy lead-in, describing sipping margaritas over a long evening watching the waves wash in as the sun set at a little palapa on the Malecón in Puerto Vallarta—true story!—or waxing eloquent about cachaça, the fermented sugar cane brandy of Brazil. Nope, I'm getting right to the recipes, because that's what's important when you've got a hankering for a cold drink on a hot summer day. Cheers!
2 Tbsp. extrafine sugar 6 Tbsp. lime juice 3 oz. blue agave tequila 2 tsp. Cointreau or triple sec Kosher salt 1 lime
Put large-size martini glasses in freezer to chill. Fill cocktail shaker 2/3 full of ice. Put all ingredients into shaker. Shake till "the sound starts to change just a little bit" (10-15 seconds at most). Take glasses out of freezer. Put salt in a wide, shallow container. Cut a small wedge of lime, make small cut in center of the wedge from cut edge to pith. Put over edge of glass and run the wedge around it. Holding the glass at an angle, submerge the edge in the pile of salt and twirl. Put one large ice cube in glass. Pour 1/2 of margarita mixture in each glass.
Trim ends off lime so white rind is gone. Cut lengthwise and remove pith from center. Slice almost all the way through perpendicular to axis of lime, leaving rind side intact. Slice diagonally a couple of times, again, not slicing through. Cut in half, perpendicular to axis and put in glass flesh side up.
Put sugar over lime. Muddle gently, squeezing out all the juice you can. Put into shaker. Fill with ice. Add the cachaca. Shake. Pour with ice into tumbler.
3. Gimlet
2 oz. gin 1 oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice 3/4 oz. simple syrup*
To make simple syrup, in a small mixing bowl stir 1 c. sugar (or superfine baker's sugar) into 1 c. water until dissolved.
Fill cocktail shaker with ice, add ingredients, shake very well and strain into martini glass. Garnish with lime wedge.
* Think about simple syrup differently, and your cocktail can suddenly take on a whole different character. Infuse the syrup with rhubarb or elderflower or basil or…?
4. Americano Cocktail
1 1/2 oz. Campari 1 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth Club soda Lemon twist
Fill cocktail glass half full of ice. Add Campari and sweet vermouth. Top with club soda and stir to combine. Add lemon twist.
6 fresh mint leaves 1-1/2 Tbsp. simple syrup 1 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice Crushed ice 2 oz. light rum 2 oz. club soda
Lime wedge for garnish
Put mint leaves into a highball glass. Add simple syrup and lime juice. Muddle gently (try to leave the leaves whole rather than tearing them up too much...that way you won't have to strain them through your teeth when you drink it). Fill glass with crushed ice and add rum and soda. Garnish with lime wedge.
I also contributed a review to this collection, of an engaging book from first-time author Stephany Wilkes called Raw Material: Working Wool in the West(top photo) that describes her transition from high tech executive in Silicon Valley to itinerant sheep shearer in the American West. My review said, in part, that she "brings to life the cast of the interesting characters and ornery sheep she encounters on her journey to understand the ranchers and the land they steward, and [to] discover the terroir of wool."
Do you ever get an idea in your head and it just sits there, occasionally tweaking your brain with that "now what was that" niggling feeling? That was the case when I was thawing out some pasture-raised hamburger from Carman Ranch the other night, wondering whether to make burgers—we had leftover homemade buns in the freezer—or a marinara with pasta, or tacos or…meatloaf?
That's when it hit me. That idea I'd toyed with at some point in the misty past to make a meatloaf with the usual sofrito of onions and garlic, binding it with eggs and oats, but then flattening it out, filling it with with greens and rolling it up like a jelly roll.
How would I roll it up? Would it stay together or crumble into a mashy mess? There was only one way to find out.
Fortunately, my neighbor Bill had gifted me some radishes from his garden with their gorgeous greens still attached, and we had some leftover grated Parmesan from a risotto I'd made the night before. The rest, as they say, was history.
Rolled Meatloaf with Greens and Cheese
3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 onion, chopped fine 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 lbs. hamburger 1 1/2 lbs. ground pork 2 eggs 1/2 c. rolled oats 1 Tbsp. dried herbs (I used a combination of basil, oregano and thyme) 2-3 c. greens, sliced into chiffonade (I used radish greens, but kale, spinach, chard or any other greens would do.) 1 c. finely grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 375°.
Heat olive oil in medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add chopped onion and sauté until tender. Add garlic and sauté briefly until aromatic. Take off heat and allow to cool.
Combine hamburger, pork*, eggs, oats and onion mixture in a large bowl. (I mix it using just my fingers so the meat stays crumbly and doesn't get clumped together.) Form the meat into a loose ball in the bowl.
Lay out a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap about 15" long on a cutting board. Put the meat in the center of the sheet and start pressing it out until it's about 3/8" thick. Sprinkle it with the cheese and the greens in an even layer. Take the long edge of the sheet and start rolling it, repairing any cracks with your fingers, peeling away the sheet as you roll. Close up each end by patting the meat over the exposed edges.
When it's rolled up completely, transfer seam-side down to a sheet pan that's lined with parchment. Bake in a 375° oven for 40-50 minutes until instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part reads between 140-150° (cookbooks all say 160°, but I find that results in drier meatloaf, so you decide for yourself). Remove from oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for 15 min. Slice and serve.
* I like a combination of beef and pork, since it seems to me to make a moister loaf, but all-beef is perfectly fine, too.
When I invited two of my favorite Italian restaurant owners over for dinner, the last thing they were going to hear from me was, "Wait until you try my risotto. I think you'll love it!"
Going into the smoker.
So I went in a completely different direction, to the small island east of Cuba that was hammered so mercilessly by Hurricane Maria a little less than two years ago, an island filled with our fellow American citizens who are still all but ignored in the sturm und drang of our current national crises du jour.
It's hard to find this island's cuisine represented on our local dining scene, and while the flavors of cumin, garlic and chile are found in many Latin cultures, I thought it might be fun to make a dinner based on a Puerto Rican theme. Plus we love their take on pork shoulder, a dish called pernil that, though delicious when roasted in an oven or even on a grill, takes on a whole different character when left for several hours in the smoker.
Ready! (And check out that smoke ring.)
With Dave primed to spend his day, beer in hand, tending the fire, I needed to come up with a side that would fit in. It just so happened that I had some black turtle beans from Anthony and Carol Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm in the pantry, so I put them on to soak while I did a little research.
Similar to the black beans I make for taco nights at home, traditional preparations start with a sofrito of onions, garlic, cumin and chile powder, then add in chopped peppers, splashes of wine and vinegar, and chopped olives. These are best simmered for several hours, allowing the beans to get buttery-tender and for flavors to meld into a rich, stewy whole, so I put them on first thing in the morning. Cooking them overnight in a 250° oven would work, too, the only problem being you'd wake up wanting to make huevos rancheros after breathing in the heady aroma of the cooking beans all night.
Dave, of course, did his usual magic with the pernil, allowing the pork to roast low and slow, swathed in the smoke from the mix of charcoal and fresh oak. And the beans got their share of raves, along with sincere thanks from our friends, who, like most chefs I've cooked for, are just grateful to have someone cook for them for once!
1 pork shoulder, 4-10 lbs. 4 or more cloves garlic, peeled 1 large onion, quartered 2 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves or 1 Tbsp. dried 1 Tbsp. ground cumin 1 tsp. ancho or other mild chili powder 1 Tbsp. salt 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper Olive oil as needed 1 Tbsp. wine or cider vinegar Lime wedges for serving.
Heat oven to 300 degrees or prepare a fire in the smoker, allowing it to reach a stable temperature of 250-275°.
Score meat with a sharp knife, making a cross-hatch pattern. Pulse garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili, salt and pepper together in a food processor, adding oil in a drizzle and scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is pasty. Blend in the vinegar.
Rub this mixture into pork, getting it into every nook and cranny. Put pork in a roasting pan and film bottom with water or, if smoking in the smoker, place it on a rack above a pan of water. Roast pork for several hours until an instant-read thermometer reads 180°. [Our 10-lb. shoulder took 6 hrs. - KB]. Add more water to the pan as necessary, until meat is very tender.
Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it up; meat should be so tender that cutting it into uniform slices is almost impossible; rather, whack it up into chunks. Serve with lime.
Puerto Rican-Style Black Beans
1 lb. dried black beans, rinsed thoroughly 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 large yellow onion, chopped 2 poblano peppers, chopped in 1/2" pieces 4 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tsp. ground cumin 2 tsp. oregano 4 c. water 3 bay leaves 1 Tbsp. salt, plus more to taste 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 1/2 c. dry white wine 1/2 c. green olives stuffed with pimentos, thinly sliced
The day before cooking, soak beans overnight in large pot with water covering them by at least 3". The next day drain them and rinse. Set aside.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in large Dutch oven. Sauté onions until translucent, stirring frequently. Add chopped peppers and garlic and sauté until tender. Add cumin and oregano and sauté 30 seconds. Pour in water and add drained beans, olives, bay leaves, vinegar, and white wine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for at least 2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure the beans aren't dry. If they are, add more water.
When beans are tender, if beans are too soupy remove lid and keep simmering until liquid is reduced. Remove bay leaves, turn heat down to warm until ready to serve.
