Availability for July 26

Let me share with you a recipe from my kitchen this weekend: a soup using a number of items being listed this week.

Chop an onion(1), three leeks(2), three baby carrots(2), and three or four cloves of garlic(3). In a soup pan, heat a tablespoon of oil or butter, and add the chopped veggies. Saute five minutes or so. Add a cup of chicken stock and simmer until the stock has been absorbed. In a skillet, heat another TB of butter, and add 4-8 oz. of fresh mushrooms(4). Saute until softened and just starting to brown. Add to the soup pan, along with another cup of stock and a cup and a half of milk(5). Heat through, then add a splash of cream(5) and a handful of chopped fennel fronds(2). That right there is a great soup, but to gild the lily, you can add three chopped scallops and six chopped shrimp to the mushrooms when you’re sauteing them. Either way, it serves three, and can be scaled up very well. The chopped veggies can (and should) vary each time, based on what’s available.

(1) Sundance Farm, but they’re on vacation this week. (2) Backyard Harvest (3) Backyard Harvest, Sundance Farm, or Jim’s Farm. I used a full head of Transylvanian garlic. (4) I used local wild mushrooms this time, but in weeks past I’ve used Double B shiitake. (5) Milky Way Farm

I’ve been making this soup pretty regularly, and except for the seafood, everything was purchased through Locally Grown. Soon, even that might change. Thanks to the efforts of Dan Miller (the man who founded Locally Grown nearly six years ago), we’ve made contacts with a couple captains in Savannah who, in the face of ever larger and more destructive factory trawlers, still go out each day in small boats and fish for shrimp in a sustainable manner. There are still a few logistical items to sort out, but it looks feasible to regularly bring in shrimp right off these small boats. Like everything else we offer, you’d place your order first and then the shrimp would be essentially caught to order. What do you think? Would you be interested in such an offering? Also, processing adds to the cost, so would you be willing to have a mix of sizes, head on (the way they come off the boat)? Or are you only interested in sorted, head off shrimp? Let us know, and that’ll guide our efforts.

There are a few new items this week, including the first few melons. There are also a couple varieties of field peas, which I don’t think we’ve ever offered before. The okra are coming in stronger, the eggplant are larger, the peppers are coming in, more beans are ready, and there are a lot of tomatoes. If you do any canning at all, it’s getting to be that time. And if you’ve never done any canning, it’s a great time to start. I’m just finishing the last of my canned romas from last summer right as we hit the peak of this summer. It took me all of an afternoon to put away many jars that lasted my the year. I’ll explain how I did that next Sunday, if I remember.

Thanks for all of your support! We don’t do any advertising, so much of the growth we’ve experienced has been from you telling your friends. If you have friends who don’t know about us yet, tell them about these great tomatoes you’ve been waiting all year for, and give them our website address. Thanks, and we’ll see you this Thursday from 4:30 to 8pm at Gosford Wine!