Author: Diego Maldonado

Fuyu Persimmons, Black Radishes, and Scott Farm Apples

Market Report:

Just starting up: first of the season quince, pomegranates, and cranberries.  Bear in mind that first of the season is not peak season, so if you can wait, you’re better off flavor-wise.  New this weekend: fuyu persimmons, forelle and comice pears, and native black radishes.

Ending or gapping: figs are very hard to come by.  We have been able to get a few green zebra figs here and there, but black mission have been sparse and poor quality.  Rosa Bianca eggplant is almost over, as well as heirloom tomatoes.  The short french butter pear season is almost done, but we have lots of other great pears, like warren, comice, forelle and seckel.

 

First of the Season

  • Native Romanesco Cauliflower
  • Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
  • Native Delicata Squash
  • Georgia Candy Roaster Squash
  • Uchiki Kuri Squash
  • Native Butternut Squash
  • Native Spaghetti Squash
  • Baby Brussels Sprouts
  • Early-variety Quince
  • Fresh Oregon Huckleberries
  • Early-variety Pomegranates
  • Early-variety Native Cranberries
  • Concord Grapes
  • Native Red Grapes*
  • Forelle Pears
  • Comice Pears
  • Fuyu Persimmons
  • Locally-foraged Chicken Mushrooms*

Scott Farm Orchards

  • Cox’s Orange Pippin
  • Belle de Boskoop
  • Ananas Reinette
  • Honeycrisp
  • Gala
  • Macoun
  • Dolgo Russian Crabapples

Black Fox Farm

Native Rainbow Carrots (large)

Crown O’ Maine Organics

  • Black Radishes
  • Soldier Beans* (dried)

Fresh Start Farm – Lisbon, ME

Husk Cherry Tomatoes (aka Ground Cherries, aka Cape Gooseberries)

Stillwater Orchards – Courtland, CA

  • French Butter Pears (very limited)
  • Seckel Pears

Ward’s Farm – Sharon, MA

  • Native Raspberries*
  • Native Corn
  • Rosa Bianca Eggplant
  • Early Girl Tomatoes
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Fancy Mixed Heirloom Squash
  • Fresh Cranberry Beans
  • Fresh Lima Beans

Frog Hollow Farm – Brentwood, CA

  • Warren Pears

Equinox Farm – Sheffield, MA

  • Native Mesclun
  • Mixed Braising Greens*
  • Baby Arugula

Farm Girl Farm – Great Barrington, MA

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips*                                                                         Baby Scarlet Turnips                                                                        Mustard Flowers*

& Also…

  • Queen Charlotte Chanterelles
  • Fresh Oregon Lobster Mushrooms
  • Fresh Oregon Matsutakes
  • Jumbo Squash Blossoms
  • Fresh Garbanzo Beans
  • Wild Oregon Pousse-Pied
  • Baby Artichokes*
  • Tri-Color Cauliflower
  • Italian Prune Plums
  • California Peaches/White Peaches
  • California Nectarines
  • California Plums & Pluots
  • Black Mission Figs
  • Meyer Lemons
  • Native-style Quebec Strawberries
  • Cold Hollow Farm Apple Cider
  • Maine Apple Cider Syrup

 

By Diego Maldonado

Native Winter Squash, Baby Scarlet Turnips, and Fresh Oregon Huckleberries

Market Report:

Native heirloom squash is in full effect, cauliflower is increasingly become native, and romanesco cauliflower is here.  So are baby brussels sprouts.  Cold Hollow Farm cider is available, as well as a new product from Maine: apple cider syrup.  Roasted root veggies glazed with cider syrup is pretty killer, and so is a bourbon-spiked cider toddy sweetened with cider syrup.  First of the season rainbow carrots (full size) are here from Black Fox Farm in Maine, no tops, already washed.  I dare say no peeling needed.

Two really special things you may not know about:  baby scarlet turnips, from Farm Girl Farm in Sheffield, MA, are unreal.  Spicy, sweet, really juicy, and almost purple on the outside.  They’re peppery, creamy and don’t taste like someone just forced wasabi powder up your nose, unlike some turnips we’ve known before.  This is why you order from local farms right here.

The other big mention are the native red grapes we’re seeing right now.  This is not a concord, and it’s roughly muscat-sized, with a flavor all it’s own.  If all you’ve had are commercial red grapes, get ready to have an epiphany.  This is to regular red grapes what driscolls are to strawberries: practically a different plant.  Limited supply, try them now, and get ready to say goodbye quickly.

Say goodbye to heirloom tomatoes.  There are still some “early girl” tomatoes to be had, and if you’re trying to put some tomatoes up for the winter, grab them now and make jam or sauce. We have some really tasty mixed medley tomatoes, too, although we don’t expect them to last past this week. Don’t say goodbye to corn just yet: it’s so buttery and sweet, it’d be a shame not to use it–late season corn is full bodied, delicious and sweet.

Ordering notes: limited quantities have stars, exceptional items are in bold, and early variety items are not yet peak flavor or color.

 

First of the Season

  • Native Romanesco Cauliflower
  • Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
  • Native Delicata Squash
  • Georgia Candy Roaster Squash
  • Uchiki Kuri Squash
  • Native Butternut Squash
  • Native Spaghetti Squash
  • Baby Brussels Sprouts
  • Early-variety Quince
  • Fresh Oregon Huckleberries
  • Early-variety Pomegranates
  • Early-variety Native Cranberries
  • Concord Grapes
  • Native Red Grapes

Scott Farm Orchards

  • Cox’s Orange Pippin
  • Belle de Boskoop
  • Ananas Reinette
  • Honeycrisp
  • Gala
  • Macoun
  • Dolgo Russian Crabapples

Black Fox Farm

Native Rainbow Carrots (large)

Fresh Start Farm – Lisbon, ME

Husk Cherry Tomatoes (aka Ground Cherries, aka Cape Gooseberries)

Stillwater Orchards – Courtland, CA

  • French Butter Pears
  • Seckel Pears

Ward’s Farm – Sharon, MA

  • Native Raspberries*
  • Native Corn
  • Rosa Bianca Eggplant
  • Early Girl Tomatoes
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Fancy Mixed Heirloom Squash
  • Fresh Cranberry Beans
  • Fresh Lima Beans

Frog Hollow Farm – Brentwood, CA

  • Warren Pears

Equinox Farm – Sheffield, MA

  • Native Mesclun
  • Mixed Braising Greens*
  • Baby Arugula

Farm Girl Farm – Great Barrington, MA

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips*                                                                         Baby Scarlet Turnips                                                                        Mustard Flowers*

& Also…

  • Queen Charlotte Chanterelles
  • Fresh Oregon Lobster Mushrooms
  • Fresh Oregon Matsutakes
  • Jumbo Squash Blossoms
  • Fresh Garbanzo Beans
  • Wild Oregon Pousse-Pied
  • Baby Artichokes*
  • Tri-Color Cauliflower
  • Italian Prune Plums
  • California Peaches/White Peaches
  • California Nectarines
  • California Plums & Pluots
  • Black Mission Figs
  • Meyer Lemons
  • Washington Rhubarb*
  • Native-style Quebec Strawberries
  • Cold Hollow Farm Apple Cider
  • Maine Apple Cider Syrup

 

By Diego Maldonado

First of the Season: Cold Hollow Cider, Maine Cider Syrup, & Native Heirloom Squash

 

Market Report:

Local farmers are telling us that the last of the local heirloom tomatoes are being harvested and will be sold out shortly thereafter.  We expect to see them disappear by the middle of next week.  Say goodbye to local corn as well.  It looks like temperatures are going to drop down to the 60’s next week, so whatever is left out in the field may be slow to ripen properly.  If you are using tomatoes, the local Early Girl variety is super, super tasty and probably a good idea to put up now for the winter.

Our first shipment of Cold Hollow Cider has arrived from Vermont.  They blend about 80 percent McIntosh with Cortland, Empire, Delicious, Rome, Spartan, Niagara, and others from various Champlain Valley orchards. There’s something about the soil and climate of the region that gives Macs, in particular, that “snap” that is the distinctive taste of Cold Hollow Cider.  For those of you who plan to take cider and boil it down to a syrup for vinaigrettes, glazes, gastrique or pastry purposes, you should consider our Maine Apple Cider Syrup.  With great balance of sweetness/tartness, it also doesn’t take up space on the stove for hours.  Tell your pastry chef or bartender about it, too.  Would make a killer hot toddy.  As far as apples go, we have some native honeycrisp coming Monday, and the excellent Scott Farm heirloom apples are just a few weeks away, which will blow even honeycrisp out of the water.

Winter Squash: it’s time.  Here we go:  sugar pumpkins (heirloom), Long Island cheese pumpkins, Georgia candy roaster squash, uchiki kuri squash, and delicata squash are all coming in fresh Monday morning.

First of the Season

  • Native Honeycrisp Apples
  • Heirloom Sugar Pumpkins
  • Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
  • Georgia Candy Roaster Squash
  • Uchiki Kuri Squash
  • Delicata Squash
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Baby Brussels Sprouts
  • Cold Hollow Apple Cider
  • Concord Grapes
  • Native Lobster Mushrooms
  • Equinox Farm Braising Greens

Fresh Start Farm – Lisbon, ME

Husk Cherry Tomatoes (aka Ground Cherries, aka Cape Gooseberries)

Stillwater Orchards – Courtland, CA

  • French Butter Pears
  • Seckel Pears

Dandelion Spring Farm – Newcastle, ME

  • Anise Hyssop

Ward’s Farm – Sharon, MA

  • Native Raspberries*
  • Native Corn
  • Rosa Bianca Eggplant
  • Early Girl Tomatoes
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Orange Sungold Tomatoes
  • Fancy Mixed Heirloom Squash
  • Fresh Cranberry Beans

Frog Hollow Farm – Brentwood, CA

  • Emerald Beaut Plums
  • Warren Pears
  • Flavor Fall Pluots

Taste of the North – Québec

  • Native-style Strawberries

Equinox Farm – Sheffield, MA

  • Native Mesclun
  • Mixed Braising Greens*
  • Baby Arugula

Farm Girl Farm – Great Barrington, MA

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips*                                                                         Baby Scarlet Turnips*                                                                         Mustard Flowers*

& Also…

  • Queen Charlotte Chanterelles
  • Oregon Matsutake
  • Jumbo Squash Blossoms
  • Fresh Garbanzo Beans
  • Wild Oregon Pousse-Pied
  • Baby Artichokes*
  • Tri-Color Cauliflower
  • Italian Prune Plums
  • California Peaches/White Peaches
  • California Nectarines
  • California Plums & Pluots
  • Wild Blueberries
  • Black Mission Figs
  • Meyer Lemons
  • Washington Rhubarb*
By Diego Maldonado

Artisan Partner: Paul Hatz, Extra Virgin Foods

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Paul Hatz, a passionate Greek native who has worked with food his entire life, now direct-imports hand-picked Greek products from his friends and neighbors in Greece.

Eleones olive oil comes from a place on earth that very few people have access to. Mount Athos, considered one of the holiest places on earth, is also a world heritage site and autonomous polity under the rule of the Orthodox church.  Paul Hatz, of Extra Virgin Foods, direct imports olive oil grown and pressed on a tiny 32-acre farm that belongs to his cousin there.  Sharing a name with the peninsula on which they’re grown, the Halkidiki olive doesn’t yield much oil—it takes 10 kilos of olives to make one kilo of olive oil.  Therefore, this low-yield olive typically gets brined for eating, not pressed into oil.  But it makes an exceptional-tasting oil:  the rugged, seaside climate of Mt. Athos, combined with the fertile, relatively untouched Mediterranean soil creates conditions for this olive that are unparalleled elsewhere.

After harvesting, these olives must be rushed to the mill to press while they’re still vibrant and bright.  However, the Byzantine landscape means that there’s no such thing as roads to travel on—so they load up animals to carry the olives to the sea to waiting boats, to then continue on to the mill.

Greek Cheeses:

First, the obvious: Feta, as in—real feta—can only be made in certain regions in Greece, from Greek sheep’s milk, according to the EU.  This is the real deal (as opposed to the many feta-style cheeses that abound elsewhere.) Comes brine-packed in 9lb tins.  An excellent, briny well-balanced cheese.

Sfela, the lesser-known but seriously cool cousin to halloumi, means “fire-roasted” in Greek, and that refers to the whey being cooked in barrels over an open fire.  If feta and halloumi had a love child, this would be it.  Sold by the 9lb case.

Kefelatori, a hard pecorino-style sheep’s milk cheese, can be used much in the same way that pecorino is—shaved into a salad, paired with braised lamb, and so on.  Comes by the wheel, approx. 6# each.

Graveira, a Gruyere-like cheese that’s also made from sheep’s milk, has good fondue-like melting qualities, or used anywhere else like you would an alpine cheese with a brinier, saltier presence.  Comes by the wheel, approx. 6# each.

Olives, Oils, Peppers & Figs:

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Olympiana Early Harvest Olive Oil:  In Paul’s words,

“first and foremost we are olive oil lovers, and it is the mainstay of our business. We are intimately involved in the production, harvesting, and selection of our oils, focusing on offering the very best oils that our family and neighbors in our village of Androussajust outside Kalamata produce.”

Fruity, grassy, and bold, with a peppery kick at the end.  Awesome—house favorite.  Offered in 3ltr jugs, and cases of six 3ltr jugs.

Eleones Olive Oil:  see above.  Comes in 3ltr jugs, cases of four 3ltr jugs, or 500ml bottles, great to use as a finishing oil, for bread service,

Kalamata Olives, from the same groves used to produce the Olympiana Olive Oil, are available in large and jumbo, pitted and unpitted, in gallons.  Barrels of whole colossal-sized kalamatas are also available by pre-order.  Please, let us know what you’d prefer when ordering.

Florina Peppers, aka Roasted Bullhorn Peppers, from Macedonia, are classically stuffed with whipped feta, broiled, and paired with ouzo for a snack.  This meaty pepper is a cool alternative to piquillo or roasted red peppers, great for small plate-size snacks, and comes roasted and packed in oil, salt and vinegar.

Kimi Figs are intact, large, moist, plump white figs.  These are hand-packed and could be used whole after plumping them, turned into white fig & sherry mostarda, white fig & walnut salami, or any other place where you’d use figs.  Also a good alternative, both flavor and size-wize, for medjool dates, such as fig toffee pudding.   These are significantly larger and nicer than most commercially dried figs.  They are sundried, hand-packed, and not treated with any preservatives.  Also, they are significantly moister than most dried fruit.

By Diego Maldonado

Best Little Smokehouse in Wittenberg

R.C. Nueske, using a recipe brought over from Prussia in the late 1800’s, started making and selling bacon and sausages to folks in the northwoods of Wisconsin as a side hustle during the Great Depression.

Called by R.W. Apple “the holy grail of bacon“, and mentioned in over 100 cookbooks as well as the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, ” Nueske’s bacon is a bit different from some of the other bacons (even excellent ones) you might be used to.  The family, now in their 3rd generation of business, has protected the integrity of their product by refusing to compromise or change the methods they’ve spent so long perfecting.

What makes Nueske’s special?

The Smoke:  most applewood-smoked bacon is done for 4-6 hours, with sawdust providing the smoke.  Nueske has one person source all of their applewood trees, and cut those trees into logs–not chips, not chunks, but single-source logs that they use to smoke the bacon for 24 hours in small batches in sixteen steel-lined concrete block smokehouses.  You know, details.

The Pig:  Over the years, Nueske’s has developed relationships with local family farms who supply them with pork bellies from Belgian Pietrain pigs, fed a diet heavy in barley, to yield the meat they’re after: a good balance between lean and fat, rather than just the uber-fatty varieties that many producers of lux bacon use.  The reason? That, combined with the long smoke over coals, renders the bellies a deep ruddy color and renders off a fair bit of the fat.  Most bacons, when rendered, will yield a quarter to a third of their original weight.  Nueske’s will yield almost three quarters.  Big difference in your lardons.

The Flavor: that’s right, with a capital F.  It’s got more going on in a little lardon than most bacon has going on in a whole slice.  The smoke is rich, deep and well-balanced.  In chowder, it would lend backbone to the soup overall, as well as a nice, chewy lardon that is part of the textural joy of eating chowder in the first place.  It would make a wedge salad, especially with one of the many killer blue cheeses we have.  If you’re thinking of doing a BLT soon, now that tomato season is here, this is the bacon you want–it stands on its own and would make it unforgettable.

But I don’t need a whole slab: You can use up every little scrap of it in your beans and braises and stews, you get mad bang for your buck because it shrinks so little and adds so much flavor, it keeps for ages, there’s no big weird fatty wiggly piece at the end that you can’t use. It works as a moisturizer and eye mask as well.

Comes by the slab. They average 12#/slab. Call me maybe?

By Diego Maldonado