Archive for the ‘What’s In Season’ Category

Check out the Farmers and Artisans Market in the North Village Arts District on Sundays from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information visit their website here.

!!!THE FORECAST IS FOR RAIN BUT THIS EVENT IS BEING HELD INDOORS IN THE NEW CONFERENCE CENTER AT BRADFORD!!!

Tomorrow, Thursday September 9, from 4 to 7:30 PM, Bradford Research and Extension Center will host the annual Tomato Festival.  This family event will feature more than 50 different kinds of tomatoes that include popular garden types and the old varieties that our grandparents grew (heirlooms).

This year the festival will include the hottest pepper on earth–the Bhut jolokia–in 10 different salsas to sample.  Think you can handle a pepper that is four times hotter than the habanero?????  Try it and see!

The 6th Annual Tomato Festival at
Bradford Research and Extension Center
When: 4 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday Sept 9
Where:  4968 Rangeline Road. Directions: Go east on Broadway past Columbia city limits. Turn right at Rangeline Road. After about two miles, turn right into the Bradford Research farm. 
Take this short and beautiful drive out into the country and have a great family time that is FREE of charge!

Casey Corbin will lead a parade of cars who would like some guidance to the farm at 5:20 pm tomorrow from the Columbia Farmers Market Gravel Pad across from the ARC.  Meet there and we can all carpool and follow each other out to the festival!!  If you want to join in the carpool parade, email casey — casey@farmersmarketpavilion.org or call 823-FOOD 
Rain?  Who cares? This event is indoors in the new conference center at the reseearch center!

For more info:

http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/events/tomato-festival.php

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/09/06/how-hot-can-you-go/

by Carrie Koepke

I have a particular weakness for soups.  In general cooking soup makes me happy because it is one of the most forgiving dishes as far as a recipe goes.  You can go with what you have and alter liberally.  Sadly, the summer heat fights off my craving for a sauté and simmer ritual.  I tend to freeze single servings of each batch of winter soup to hold me off.  Come corn season, however, I have to pull out the soup pot.  When it is cold I sweat onions and garlic for at least an hour before even deciding what kind of evolution will simmer through the afternoon.  In the heat I forgo the fancy good smelling embrace.  I tried chilled fruit soups, but decided they were just weak smoothies.  So instead I trust this simple base and embellish with sharp cheddar if there is rain, add slices of venison on top for my meat eating husband, cucumber seeds for my son, and a few kernels of frozen corn for my daughter and myself.  If you have some extra time when you cut your kernels off the farmer’s market corn, soak the cobs in the milk and broth to ease out the last of the deliciousness before you start the blending and cooking.  If you know you will be in a rush just cook extra corn the night before and have the bowl of kernels waiting for you when you get home.  From that point on it is only ten to fifteen minutes from blend to table depending on how smooth you want the soup.

 5 cups of corn

2 cups of milk (or soy milk)

2 cups of chicken broth (or vegetable broth or even water)

1 Tablespoon hot salsa (or 5 sun dried tomatoes)

Pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Put all ingredients in a blender and puree or use a stick blender in the pot.  Heat on medium until slight simmer starts.  Serve with a few local spinach leaves and some fresh sour cream.

Rules: Made to Be Broken

 The best thing about pesto is that there are no rules. As an expert rule breaker, I enjoy any recipe that essentially tells me to do whatever I want.  I’ve listed the traditional pesto recipe below; however, I’ve been known to throw any number of fresh herbs, toasted nuts into a blender with olive oil and garlic and produced phenomenal results. If you really want to be daring, use artichoke hearts or kalamata olives or lemon. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

 Second best thing about pesto: you can do anything with it.  Our dinner consisted of linguine mixed with farmer’s market tomatoes and zucchini topped with chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and goat cheese.  I have, however, been known to put pesto on sandwiches, mix with assorted vinegars for salad dressing and tossed with roasted fingerling potatoes.  The message is: simple pesto +anything=good 

2+ cups of basil leaves

½ cup olive oil

½ cup toasted pine nuts

2-3 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

 NOTE:  You may notice the glaring omission of parmesan or romano from this recipe. Because I tend to put cheese in, on and around everything, I omit it from my pesto.  It is a bit lighter and less full, but also a bit healthier, which is nice when everything else is coated in some form of cheese.  Also, adjust the nut and garlic at will, I tend to like a lot of both. 

 Sarah Ratermann Beahan is a Rural Sociology graduate student, a freelance writer, a foodie, a runner and a wino, not necessarily in that order.

You can find her at http://www.onerealthing.wordpress.com/

MY OH MY! BLUEBERRY PIE!

4 Cups Whole Fresh (ONLY FRESH) BLueberries (About 2 pints)

3/4 Cups sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup water

2 Tbsp. corn starch

1 tsp. butter (DONT SUBSTITUTE)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

9″ baked pastry shell

1 egg white, whipped up a bit with 1/8 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. water.(Eggwash)

To start with…The pie shell. Use a Pillsbury “unfolded” type shell, you only need
half the package. Let it sit till it’s at room temp. Then, fit it to your pie pan, and
pinch the curst around the edges of the pie pan. Then, take your fork and prick it all
over, sides and bottom. Go ahead and bake it for the 10 or 12 minutes till it starts
to get a little brown. Take it out of the oven and now brush it all with a pastry
brush with the eggwhite/sugar mixture, and put it back in the oven to set, and then
do it again. This makes the crust VERY crisp/tender and the sugar/egg wash makes
the crust golden, glossy and sweet.

Let the crust rest, and get cool. It doesn’t take long, so you go on ahead and fix the
filling at this point.

Now. This blueberry filling is SO simple! But, you will agree that it’s
one of the most delicious idea’s you’ve tasted in a long time. Trust me on this one
friends…this one is a “Keeper” for sure.  Combine sugar, salt, water, and cornstarch in a
medium sized sauce pan, mix it up well, then stir in 1/2 of the blueberries and cook over
medium heat until bubbling and the berries start to pop. Stir to prevent the stuff from
stickin to the bottom of the pan. Remove it from the stove and stir in the butter and lemon
juice. Then let it all sit and cool a bit. Now, take the other 1/2 of the FRESH blueberries and
scatter’em in the fresh baked pie shell, smooth ‘em out nice and even. Then, take the
cooked blueberry stuff and pour it over the fresh berries in the pie shell. Smooth it
all over and then set it in the fridge for at least two hours, but it’s better to leave it
for four hours.

Ohhhhhhh. Now. Slice a piece of this. The crust holds together like nothing you
ever sliced, and the bluberries and such stay right in place. You gotta put a scoop
of ‘nilla ice cream on this dish. Watch out! The flavor of this will send you to the
moon. Promise ya’ll on this one! Blueberry season has just started, so I do hope
ya’ll print this out and TRY it. I give you my word on this. You won’t be sorry on
this one friends!
by Peter Meng

Last week I was privileged to be invited to pick early blueberries at Carol and Greg Busacker’s SGB Farms on Cedar Tree Lane south of Ashland. Talk about sustainable agriculture and local food! Yummm!

They needed a patient, expert picker, as there were just one or two ripe berries per bush–early comers. Greg and I picked together, one on each side of the row, and caught up on our lives while we worked. We covered most of the patch and gathered about ten pounds (about two galloons) of berries. I’m famous for my picking speed because I belt the bucket to my waist and pick with both hands–years of vegetable harvesting experience.

Blueberries are such a joy to pick, no thorns and you get to stand up straight. Rich in antioxidants, they freeze easily and keep well. I fill up my freezer and eat some every day all year. The farm is beautiful and it’s a fun family experience.

Carol and Greg schedule pickers by reservation, call 573-657-2989 to get on their mailing list. Unfortunately they’re totally booked for 2010, but no reservations are needed at Mary Brauch’s Missouri Highland Farms. See her website at www.missourihighlandfarm.com. Mid-Missouri blueberry season is coming June 17-July 19th. Enjoy!

Diane La Mar is a local psychotherapist and writer.