In a pickle.

You may have noticed an absence of Fresh posts in the last couple of weeks, and I do apologize for those of you who have been checking in. For one thing, I needed to devote more time than usual to an ongoing job search. Yes folks, I am one of the lucky ones to be making a career change during our season of economic discontent. The upshot of the search is that it is an excuse to go out and meet lots of talented, intelligent and driven people. I've been lucky to come across so many kind people in the process, all of whom have helped or advised me in some meaningful way. Almost every day, I learn something new and interesting about the communications industry or a particular organization or company. And I get to eat my lunch at home. Those are the perks. I probably don't have to tell you that there are a few detractors, like an excess amount of pajama wearing in front of the computer, though I imagine that for some that doesn't sound so bad.

But enough about that, the good news is that I've also been busy with lots of Fresh-related activities, though the research meant less time to write. Kind of a pickle, is it not? Not to worry, I'll be sharing what I've found over the next couple of weeks. But back to the subject of pickles...


In Pennsylvania, we've hit our bumper crop of squash and cukes. At a nearby farm*, until about a week ago when a nasty bacteria devoured the remaining cucumber plants, we couldn't eat these crops fast enough. For my part, I was dumping handfuls of shredded zucchini into chocolate chip cookies (which is a really good idea, though it wasn't mine), eating plenty of raw zucchini and cucumber salads and generally fretting about the still looming pile of cucumbers in my crisper drawer. I knew what had to be done, but to be honest, it scared the crap out of me.

What exactly was I so afraid of? In a word, preservation. Dehydrating. Pickling. CANNING. Sure, I've frozen large batches of pesto, pumpkin puree and tomato sauce, but when it comes to the more advanced preservation tactics, I chicken out. Maybe it's the multiple rounds of blanching for pickles or the exacting nature of perfecting the PH level for safe canning, but the idea has always intimidated me. But not this year my friends.

I decided to start small with refrigerator pickles. Using the basic outline from this recipe, I sliced up my cukes, prepared the brine and anxiously waited 24-hours to taste the transformation. The result was crisp, tart and tasty. Not the perfect pickle by any stretch, but they certainly perked up our sandwiches and were good enough to inspire me to take the next step.


Before the end of the summer, I'm determined to conquer this recipe for pickled red onions, and can some of the crushed heirloom tomatoes that Justin can't get enough of during the summer. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted.

*Skunk Hollow Community Farm is operated by Greener Partners, a sustainable farming organization that I've been volunteering and working with for the past year. I'm looking forward to telling you more about their mission later, but feel free to check out their site in the meantime.

I eat pralines for breakfast.

Well, not always. But this morning, when a box of River Street Sweets arrived at my front door, I decided to seize life by the collar, throw a couple of pralines in the microwave and pour myself a glass of milk. And while I wouldn't recommend this as a daily routine, it certainly got the day off to pleasant start. I jest, but I do think it's important to balance consideration for a healthy diet with occasionally relaxing and enjoying a sugary hunk of pecans. After all, it's not often that you wake up to two boxes of original and chocolate pralines, care of some very thoughtful parents, straight from your favorite sweet shop in Charleston.

Hoping you all find a little something to indulge in this weekend...

Welcome, summer.

In the wake of a weekend filled with blue skies, fireworks and BBQs, please allow me to introduce our old friend, summer... Albeit a few days late. Yes folks, as you may have noticed our Fresh summer surprise has arrived in the form of the strawberry-themed artwork* you see here. Like the food we seek, Fresh content is also seasonal, and it seems only fitting that our look change with the weather.

That said, this quarterly change-up seemed like a much better idea in theory than when I cracked open blogger last week and set to work updating the design. In fact, if Fresh carried a sound, you would hear one long sigh of relief coming from this author, followed by the snap of a Yuengling being opened. Sad, I know, but HMTL tends to make me a little skittish. But between blogger's user-friendly format and a few tips from the pros and a blog-saavy friend, Fresh made it through the change-over unscathed. It's a fourth of July miracle.


With that in mind, I plan on spending the next week or two seeking out and enjoying the sweet end of the strawberry harvest. I'll want to enjoy the strawberries' flavor before it's gone, so my thought is to keep it simple with a shortcake like this one, or possibly crank up the ice cream maker for a cool treat. And you?

. . .

*An enormous thank you again to my friend Lauren for volunteering her design services and delivering such lovely artwork... And then doing the same thing three more times. Thank you, thank you my friend.

Dust off the grill

A wise woman once said, "Deciphering html, even if it's beginner html for dummies, is no way to kick-off 4th of July weekend." I'll admit, I know this woman, and I trust her. That said, we're going to have to hold off on the Fresh surprise until first thing next week. Hopefully, you're already outside prepping your grills and soaking up the sun, and won't even think about computers, blogs or pesky html until Monday.

So have a safe and happy fourth all, here's hoping it's filled with good food! And if you're interested, here's a look at what's on our menu for the weekend...

• Lemony White Bean Hummus with garlic and tahini
• Forks Farm grilled chicken
• Bikini Zucchini Salad (a clever name for a delicious diet-worthy mix of raw zucchini and lemon dressing, with a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and basil- from one of my new favorite blogs)
• Super Orzo Salad (made with whatever looks good at the farmer's market this afternoon... I can't get enough of this stuff!)
• Grilled sweet white corn
• Buttermilk biscuits (the recipe comes from a Southern cookbook that was passed to me from my grandmother, and marked up by my mom and all of my aunts. Needless to say, it's a family heirloom.)

And because I would never end a meal without something sweet...

• Black Raspberry-Blueberry Pound Cake
and
• Vegan Coconut, Chocolate Chip, Pecan cookies based on this recipe (okay, so this last one isn't exactly local, but I am a true believer that no holiday is complete without a bit of chocolate)

As always, we would love to hear about some of your must-have July 4th dishes (or drinks as the case may be). Fill us in next week!

Cherries!

Hello again! Hope you've all had a wonderful week, despite the rain that some of us can't seem to escape. The good news is that the weather is finally right in Pennsylvania for plump, sweet cherries.


Shockingly, this was never something I cared about until, well, yesterday. Before now, I just couldn't get excited about these early summer treats, but the specimens that showed up in my CSA share from Kauffman's Fruit Farm changed my mind. In fact, they were so delicious that I decided to put them in a pretty bowl and take a photo for you. Sadly, by the time I got out my camera, my fingertips were stained red and the majority of the cherries had mysteriously disappeared, with only a lonely half dozen or so remaining. Still, I think they look quite lovely.


Despite my recent love-affair with these sweet fruits, I don't think I could be convinced to eat them any other way then straight off the stem. I'm sure some of you would beg to differ... How you would rather have them?

. . .

As an aside, we've got a few fun things in the works for Fresh, so check back at the end of this week and early next for a summer surprise and a very good story for the coffee lovers among us!

Kitchen notes + See you in a week!

In about an hour, my hubby, JK, and I are unplugging from the world and heading up to his family's cabin to enjoy an entire week of swimming, hiking, relaxing and soaking up the sun (if the weather holds out). In fact, as I type JK is behind me haphazardly tossing most of his clothes into a duffel bag. The fact that he can do that in about five minutes, while I have to spend two days carefully planning everything I will need, is another story entirely.

Before I go, I wanted to leave you all with a fun and functional recent addition to our kitchen. Lately, I've found that by sitting down and making a meal plan each week, we eat healthier meals and have a happier wallet. The list doesn't have to be hard and fast, just an outline that helps me incorporate all the goods from our CSA share and figure out what else to shop for. Until this week, I scribbled the list into a little blue notebook and carried it to the grocery store with me. But now....

{ our new chalkboard, in all of its glory. jk said it made him feel like he was in a restaurant }

Yes folks, after months of searching, we have acquired a vintage chalkboard for our kitchen. Granted, it's less portable than the blue notebook, but seeing this chalkboard hung in our lilliputian kitchen makes me very happy. Already, it's inspiring me to find new ways to use the bounty of our bi-weekly produce share. If there are others of you out there with little things that make you happy in the kitchen, I would love to hear about them here!

So on that note, have a lovely week all and I will look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday! In the meantime, check out this awesome story about the growing trend of roof gardens from The New York Times earlier this week... And a thank you to my dear friend Jo for pointing it out to me!

Future for Dairy

It has been established that I enjoy my milk products. So it's no surprise that yesterday's conversation on Civil Eats about the future of dairy farms in America caught my eye.

The original piece is a reaction to the sharp drop in dairy prices that is endangering American farmers, who are now being paid roughly half of what it costs them to produce milk. Not surprisingly, the cause involves the economic slow-down. When the recession hit late last year, many dairy farms were expanding to meet the growing worldwide demand for milk products. As we all tightened our belts, the demand fell and dairy farmers found themselves knee-deep in a surplus. At the same time, we saw a loss in our milk product exports according to the U.S. Foreign Agriculture Service, and an increase in milk product imports. By late 2008, the dairy industry was in trouble.

{ An organic dairy farmer in Brookfield, Vt. Photo courtesy of the New York Times }

The Civil Eats post mentions that the price drop is worst for conventional and small to mid-sized farms, but a recent New York Times piece explains that the organic dairy industry is being hit at least as hard, as farmers who made big investments to go organic are now watching their cash-strapped consumers return to non-organic milk.

I'm cringing at the idea of losing 80% of our dairy farms by the end of the year, a loss that would make us increasingly dependent on huge dairy operations and foreign imports, and I am in absolute agreement that action needs to be taken to avoid that outcome. Unfortunately, the problem is reaching a critical mass and the solution will most likely need to come in the form of an immediate increase in subsidies. That said, I feel strongly that these subsidies be a temporary solution, the last thing we want to see is a dairy industry that looks like our model for growing and subsidizing corn.

The future of our small, medium and organic farms depends on an economically sustainable solution, and as Farm Aid's Hilde Steffey points out, "Ultimately, what our dairy farmers need is a complete overhaul of the milk pricing system: one that incorporates the national average cost of production, a fair living wage, and an inventory management mechanism designed to address overproduction as needed. Furthermore, the Department of Justice must tackle unchecked anti-trust violations and excessive control in the industry to ensure a pricing system that is fair and transparent for dairy farmers, processors and consumers alike."

So while subsidies are an important temporary answer, it's crucial that we look ahead for a creative and economically viable solution... The future of our ice cream depends on it. If you're interested in making your thoughts heard feel free to share them in the comments below, or click here.

{ honey lavender ice cream from Epicurious.com }