The Kitchen Potager » Farmers Market

June 15, 2010

We know how to cook – let’s “freeze”!

Filed under: Farm to Table, Farmers Market — The Kitchen Potager @ 12:26 pm

01 Freeze-Frame

Last week I picked up a new favorite toy with sleek lines, simple parts and a chilly center. It does not require electricity, just the frozen cylinder and approximately 20 minutes of watching, churning, tasting (rough job) until you come up with a chilly mass of tasty goodness – the Donvier Ice Cream Maker. My childhood memories of ice cream making are dominated by fetching ice and sprinkling rock salt until I was distracted towards a new activity. This new toy offers a frozen cylinder which replaces the rock salt chore and simply requires a churn a few times, every few minutes.
We have a local artisanal organic ice cream maker, oWow Cow Creamery in Ottsville (pronounced either “oh Wow” for delicioso or “ow ow” for painfully good), whose flavors are exceptional and inspiring. In their true form, I sought out the ultimate local, fresh, quality, ingredients which we all know, makes all the difference.

I planned to create an herbal strawberry ice cream for weekend activities. All of the ingredients were locally accessible: I picked the last batch at Penn Vermont Saturday morning, went to my chicken coop for my eggs (one aracauna blue and one buff orpington brown if we are being specific), stopped at Kimberton Whole Foods for the Kimberton Dairy raw milk and heavy cream, organic sugar, honey from Marsh Gibbons (thanks Yvonne & Kevin), and picked tarragon and sweet woodruff from The Kitchen Potager (thank you Robin and Marlene for inspiring the anise and vanilla herbal flavors).
I had the kitchen to myself, World Cup was starting…
Local ingredients Hull quart+ of Penn Vermont strawberries and add 1/4 c sugar and T Marsh Gibbons Honey, 2 T chopped tarragon and 1 T toasted chopped sweet woodruff, set aside in refrigerator.
In large bowl, whip two eggs gradually adding 3/4 c sugar. By the time you get to the end of the sugar, you have a thick custard. Gradually whip in 1 c milk followed by 2 c heavy cream and t vanilla. When berries are chilled for 1 hour, add the cream and egg mixture and chill again for at least one hour. When you are closer to serving, add your berry custard mix into the ice cream maker, in this case a Donvier sorbetiere, and churn 3-4 times every 3-4 minutes for approximately 20 minutes. Et Voila! Three cheers for everyone on the kitchen team and 3 cheers for Argentina!
The lightweight electricity-free simplicity of the new Donvier toy allowed us to carry the ice cream “en process” to our friends for dinner. We were treated to their “fresh catch” seafood dinner and gourmet treats. As the sun set, we slurped the spoonfuls of sunny strawberry flavors while enjoying front row seating for the lightning bug glittery entertainment display. The recipe worked well but my new gadget is not capable of freezing the moment. We will simply have to freeze again!

It's coming together! Berry Berry Good

A Berry Berry Good Season

Filed under: Farm to Table, Farmers Market — The Kitchen Potager @ 11:37 am

With this year’s season being two weeks ahead of time, I was so thrilled to catch the last of the strawberry season at Manoff Market Gardens, Solebury and Penn Vermont, route 113! Last Tuesday night, I picked up my friend Yvonne and rushed to see Amy at Manoff Market Garden to see what we could find. When I arrived last year, the watered down season brought tears to farmers’ eyes as rain washed out the crops, literally. In contrast last week, it was such a joy to hear that it was the best season in 10 years. The loads of dry sunny weather with just the right amount of rain brought back the thrill of PYO; perfectly ripe red strawberries with flavors packed with juicy sunshine! Amy mentioned that all of their varieties were ripe at the same time – jewel, cabot, earliglow, and late glow…oh my!

The selection we picked for the Ottsville Farmers Market tasting was ideal, a small selection of the shrek-like Cabot, juicy jewel for dipping and displaying, as well as canning choices of sweet tart flavor packed early and late glow to preserve the 2010 season as long as possible. As market patrons tasted the varieties, it was wonderful to hear the exclamations “that is what a strawberry is supposed to taste like!”. Penn Vermont had such a successful season that they were closed for a few days during the week until there were more berries. Luckily, I was able to visit on Saturday and was the LAST person to walk off the farm with strawberries for the season! This year we enjoyed the berries for World Cup and will need to have Raspberries and cream for Wimbledon!

Hale the helper

Can you taste the sunshine?

Get them while they last!

August 11, 2009

LHFM 8/7 – Squash Contest

Filed under: Farmers Market — The Kitchen Potager @ 8:42 am

Both vendors and patrons of the Linden Hill Farmers’ Market were thrilled to see a sunny day for the first time since the inception of the market. While rain has not deterred festive loyal market fans during previous weeks, the fair weather created a more bustling scene with both familiar and new sunny faces. Two new vendors joined the market, Carrie English, local Shiatsu & Macrobiotic instructor and Rachel Isaac, Artist of hand crafted botanical prints from Philadelphia. Market attendees were thrilled to have a taste of Carrie’s treatments with the onsite shiatsu chair. Rachel added to the market scene and enjoyed her new Friday “work” venue. She was recruited by her mother Joanne Isaac, a fellow artist who from Haycock.

It was an ideal time for the Lord’s Pantry to participate in the market, offering a 50/50 raffle for their new building. Christine Wimpenny, volunteer for the cause, explained their mission*, “The Lord’s Pantry has been serving Upper Bucks County lower income families for nearly 10 years. It is a volunteer organization that not only feeds the hungry but efforts to connect patrons to healthcare and housing, as well as creating a sense of community.” The Kitchen Potager suggested a squash contest which contributes to their cause as well as provides attendees with the opportunity to win “Linden Hill Farmers Market Dollars” for vendor purchases. The vegetables entered in the contest are donated to the Lord’s Pantry and home garden overflow is also welcome for collection. Categories include, but are not limited to, the largest squash, creative recipes, and oddest shape. This week’s winners are: 1) Susan Kahn of Bucks County Cookies won for her Zucchini Spice Cookie Recipe (listed below)** (full disclosure: judges are biased towards recipes accompanied by the prepared product ; 2) Lisa Hickey, local Decorative Artist won the kooky shape award (for her squash of course). Tianna Dupont, Penn State Extension was an honorary winner for most creative use for trombocino squash. The contest will continue to run next week so bring that overgrown zucchini and home garden overflow to the market next Friday. Rather than dropping it off for your “favorite” neighbor, you can have it go towards a great cause!

Later in the day John Schwarz, my personal favorite chef, cooked up delicious concoctions on his cow grill. We lingered as he served up treats for sampling; Swallow Hill round eggplants, peppers and garlic; Highland Gourmet’s kielbasa, chanterelles, and mozzarella; Purely Farms’ Chicken Apple Sausage, Berger Farm’s corn, Blooming Glen’s torpedo onions and my own heirloom tomatoes served as a base for the salsa served with Brad’s Raw beet flavored chips. Bill Schwarz donated the ribeye as a decadent treat. Rosie Nagel of Swallow Hill organic farm joined us and offered her sparkling personality and Michelle’s garden bouquet. It was one of my favorite evenings with sunshine, food & friends. Please join us when you can!

Upcoming features at Linden Hill Gardens:
August 14th – Music performed by Nancy Shill & Charlie Pellegrino
August 21st – Hugh Mangam & Mighty Quinn Pork Smoker
August 28th – Dog Days of Summer – Pooch Parade for Prizes at 7:00 pm

*The Lord’s Pantry has been serving Upper Bucks County lower income families for nearly 10 years. It is a volunteer organization that not only feeds the hungry but efforts to connect patrons to healthcare and housing, as well as creating a sense of community. It is supported by the Bucks County Opportunity Council, Norwescap Food Bank, St. John the Baptist Church, and through the goodwill of the various local faith communities, businesses, schools, and individuals. The Pantry is located in St. John the Baptist Church at 4050 Durham Road in Ottsville. Hours are: Mondays, 3pm – 5pm; Tuesdays, 9:30am – 11:30am; and Thursdays, 9:30am – 1:30pm.

** Zucchini Spice Cookies
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 c butter – softened
1 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 c milk
1 1/2 c grated zucchini
1/2 c walnuts (optional)
1/2 c raisins (optional)

Preheat ovent to 350 degrees.
1) Cream butter and sugar. Add zest.
2) Beat in egg.
3) Combine dry ingredients in bowl and mix into butter. Mix alternately with milk.
4) Stir in zucchini and nuts & raisins

Place like cookies on cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. The will be soft like zucchini bread in the shape of cookies.

Filling: 4 oz cream cheese – soft
4 Tablespoon softened butter
1 c confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients and stir to blend.

Let cookies cool. Assemble two cookies with cream filling in the middle and serve.

July 30, 2009

Linden Hill Farmers’ Market – 7/31

Filed under: Farmers Market — The Kitchen Potager @ 11:19 pm

Tomorrow will be a great market day! We will welcome a new prepared food vendor, “Crepe Infusion” to the market. We look forward to enjoying their sweet and savory crepes created from their own concoctions and our local vendors’ produce.

Sheila McDuffie from The Kitchen Garden Cooking School in Upper Black Eddy will be demonstrating Southern Indian cooking at The Kitchen Potager. Using produce available at the market, she will prepare Vegetable Sambar and Dosai. Samples and recipes will be available during the market. Casual demonstration at 5:00 pm. After 5 pm, we will enjoy the sounds of local band, Waterfront Blue.

We would like to thank Amanda Cregan for today’s Intelligencer cover page story on Linden Hill Farmers’ Market, “Ripe for the Picking“, a great story on our festive atmosphere at the market.

We are also proud to announce the publication of Jerry’s first book: Lessons from Linden Hill, by Jerry Fritz with Nancy Ondra! The books are available in the retail cottage and you can catch them at the market for a book signing as well. We hope that you enjoy this personal account of the transformation of Linden Hill Gardens as well as passionate plant advice from Jerry Fritz with Nancy Ondra as much as we do!

To order, you may go directly to our website: http://lindenhillgardens.com/
Lessons from Linden Hill: Design Tips and Planning Pointers by Jerry Fritz and Nancy Ondra chronicles the development of the plantings at Linden Hill Gardens in Ottsville, Pennsylvania. But it’s not just a dry guidebook: Lessons from Linden Hill is filled with practical advice and inspiring ideas that you can easily apply to your own gardens, no matter where you live.

Please join us if you can!