Eating Local

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You all know that I am a self-confessed food nerd, but will you just look at this gorgeousness?

This was the peach orchard stall at our farmer's market on the last Saturday of our peach season. This orchard has peaches from the first week in June through the first week in August so it's a long season. They plant several different varieties that ripen progressively, and they are all equally good.

Here are my last five peaches! (Now in the fridge. I have discovered that peaches keep really well in the refrigerator just in an uncovered bowl.)

I'm always sad to see the local peaches end. We can still get them from places like Kerrville further south in Texas but, honestly, having eaten peaches pretty much every single day for two months, I'm okay with stopping. I'll be thrilled when next June rolls around and the peaches are back.

We still have blackberries, though.

And local cantelope and watermelon and corn and tomatoes. 

(Our blueberry season is short, boo, and finished by the first of July.)

But if I mourn the end of peaches just a bit, the figs have come in at Trader Joe's!!! This is one of the highlights of my year, as figs are one of the few things that are ONLY available in season. I suppose this is because they are too fragile to ship from other countries? Seriously, I am mad for figs, and I got ONE from my own fig tree this year. (That is a story for another post...)

Oh, and it's also Hatch chili season! We get them shipped in from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico (I consider this local enough!) and they are so fabulous. Some of our supermarkets have big roasters set up in front of the stores and the smell of the chilis roasting is just amazing. Do you get Hatch chilis in other parts of the country?

At least in the summer, I try to stick to local and in season produce as much as possible, although I do have to admit that the figs are cheating, too, because commercial fresh figs are only grown in southern California. 

I don't buy apples at all in the summer, but will look forward to apples coming in from more northern states in the fall. We don't grow them this far south ( a fair trade-off for things like Hatch chilis and Texas peaches and grapefruit,) but we may get some Arkansas apples (delish!) in the farmer's market.

Where I fall down is on citrus. I can't do without citrus in the summer, even if it's not very good. And in the winter I'll cheat and buy blueberries if they come from Mexico, but not if they come from Peru, because I think those taste dreadful. Too long in storage, maybe?

I love reading historical fiction to see what people ate when they could only get what was in season. And of course so much of the history of world trade and development is based on people trying to get what they couldn't grow. (Think sugar cane, coffee, tea, etc., etc.)

What about you, darling REDs and readers? Do you try to eat local?  If so, do you have out-of-season weaknesses, like me?

And for those of you who, like Rhys, write historical fiction, do you research what would have been available and when?

Cooking Fresh Market Pinto Beans

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our town's Saturday farmer's market is in full swing and absolutely packed with people from the time it opens until it closes at noon. If you want the best stuff, however, you need to go early. Peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries are in, as well as the first melons. It's still too early for field tomatoes, but making up for that lack is the first sighting of fresh black-eyed peas, lady cream peas, purple hulls, and pintos. 

For years I've cooked all of the peas as long as they're in season, especially the delicate lady creams, but I hadn't had as much experience with pintos until recently. Surprisingly, it's really hard to find any recipe instructions online--if you type in a search for "how to cook fresh pintos" you invariably get back recipes for dried beans. This is a shame as the fresh beans are delicious. Look how pretty they are when they're raw, almost opalescent!

And cooking them is easy-peasy! Rinse, toss in stockpot, cover with an inch or so of water or stock, throw in some aromatics (I used sliced shallot, a couple of garlic cloves, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, some peppercorns, and a splash of white wine.) 

Bring to a simmer, cook until tender and creamy, being sure to add liquid if they start to dry out. Unlike the long cook time for dried beans, these should only take half an hour to forty-five minutes. Keep tasting! Then add salt. You can eat them just like this, or with rice, or jazz them up with more seasoning, use in salads, drain and mash for tacos, etc., etc. 

Here, I had some for lunch with sliced avocado, lime, sea salt, cilantro, salsa verde, and a dollop of homemade kimchi. 

Reds and readers, do you get fresh peas and beans in your markets? Or is this more of a southern thing? Although I have a vague and probably apocryphal memory of my mom and grandmother sitting on the patio and shelling fresh peas, I never see them in the shell in the markets here now.

Summer Bounty

LUCY BURDETTE: It's that time of year where busy or not, the produce in our garden and at the farmers market is too gorgeous not to put some by for the cold months. So even though I have one book due in two weeks and another hitting bookshelves on 9/4, I'm freezing blueberries and chopped peaches and making bread and butter pickles. And then there's the pesto...

I didn't use to be a big fan of pesto, but after we started planting wads of basil to protect the tomato plants, I evolved. Now I usually make 3 or 4 batches in the summer and freeze it in small amounts to use as a topping for pasta, or my personal favorite, pesto pizza topped with sliced fresh tomatoes and slices of fresh mozzarella. The good thing about this recipe is that you can tweak to taste--add more garlic if you like a stronger flavor. Or substitute walnuts for the pine nuts, which are quite expensive. Up the cheese, up the oil, the choice is yours!

Ingredients

1 clove garlic
4 oz pine nuts (also called pignoli, can substitute walnuts)
4 oz good Parmesan cheese
3-4 Tbsp good olive oil
1 large bunch fresh basil, washed and dried (leaves only)

In the food processor, mince the garlic. Add the pine nuts and whir them to a paste. Cut the Parmesan into one inch chunks and add those to the bowl of the food processor, along with the olive oil. Whir to a paste. Add the basil leaves in three sections, and grind those up with the other ingredients. Taste and add salt or more oil if you think it needs it.

This list of ingredients made 3 half-cup servings which I will freeze and we'll enjoy pesto all fall!

Hope you enjoy! Or come on over and take a container from my freezer:). What summer treats are you putting away for this winter?

HALLIE EPHRON: Peach pie! Only how do I keep the bottom crust from going to mush?

Summer in New England is fish... I just made a fabulous bouillabaisse with lobster and fresh fish and local tomatoes. And real saffron, which trumps pine nuts for cost ($19.99 for a tiny little vial of threads... can't I harvest them from my crocuses in the spring??)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Or you can use arugula or spinach instead of basil! I'm not...cooking this summer. Nada. nothing, zip. The only thing I'm cutting-is words from my new manuscript!  And all I'm harvesting is ideas.  So. I'm coming to your houses.

RHYS BOWEN: Since I'm away for most of the summer this year I haven't attempted to grow anything. I haven't really found any good English produce in stores in London so I'm looking forward to going to my sister-in-law in Cornwall for some home grown produce and eggs.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Lucy's garden boggles the mind. Gorgeous. (LUCY--thanks Ro! And can't resist posting this picture of John who's just brought in the harvest for the day!) I have a mighty fine garden myself but you probably wouldn't want to eat anything I grow in my shady, rocky paradise unless one day I really do try sauteing the bamboo shoots in spring. Bread and butter pickles? Send them my way. Pesto? What a thoughtful holiday present (hint,hint..)

The only crop the deer, bunnies and squirrels have left to us are the blackberries..which I suppose I could make jam with..maybe Lucy/Roberta has inspired me. Other than that and grilling, which is the exclusive domain of Mr. Harris - I don't even know how to turn on the monster gas grill - my summer staple is watermelon, feta, mint and kalamata olive salad. YUM! I probably won't stop making it until the watermelon gets really white and tasteless.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Like Hank, the only thing I'm cooking up this summer is my latest manuscript. In fact, Ross picked me up from the library the other day (when the kids are home for the summer, I have to leave to get work done) and innocently asked, "Have you thought about dinner?"  I just laughed in his face.

Maybe because the teens have been so busy themselves, but Ross hasn't done nearly as much grilling as usual. However, he has been making lovely, luscious pies from locally grown blueberries and strawberries. Mmmm. Pie.

JAN BROGAN: I only grow herbs, and I only grow herbs that can survive a lot of neglect.  I find it really demanding if they actually want to be weeded and watered.

This year that means chives, basil and mint. Although jalapeños are another favorite, but I just didn't get around to it this year.  I still love to cook though, and also do a version of my own pizza, and Hank you'll be happy to know you can add microwaved chopped frozen spinach to the fresh basil and tomatoes and cheese and it's delicious.  I add the mint to Giada's orzo salad recipe and Hallie, I have been making a single crust peach pie that you cook first (So it doesn't get soggy)  and then add fresh peaches sautéed with honey and balsamic vinegar, topped with plain Greek yogurt whipped with honey and vanilla.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm with Hank and Julia, the only thing I've cooked this summer is my manuscript. And once I finished that, it was too hot to cook anything!!  Even grilling is torture.  For the first time in I don't know how many years, I haven't even made it to the farmer's market...  And like Jan, I only grow herbs. I decided years ago that getting anything else through the Texas summers AND working was beyond me.

My favorite summer thing is fresh buffalo mozzarella (Costco), good tomatoes, and basil with a little extra virgin olive oil and fresh ground salt and pepper. Heaven. And I would mention that I've discovered that a teaspoon of homemade basil simple syrup make a fabulous gin Bramble, but am getting a reputation about the gin:-)