Stop by any farmstand in Maine in September and be prepared for a gorgeous and colorful bounty! Black Krim, German Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Yellow taxi, Brandywine, Green Zebra, Amish Paste, Ox Heart, Black Prince, Big Rainbow….these are all names of Heritage or Heirloom tomatoes.
Known to gourmands and seed savers alike, these varieties are lacking a gene favored since commercialization back in the forties that offers uniformity. Which is helpful in shipping. But heirlooms are far superior in old fashioned flavor and are just so much fun to work with! And to eat.
Nicely balanced with ample acids to offset sugars, the heirlooms’s classic tang and flavor reign supreme!
Half my growing area every season is given over to the cultivation of garlic (allium sativum). I plant mine in compost enriched raised beds and I prefer the stiff neck type. I enjoy the variety MUSIC, which is both sharp and mild and has about four large cloves in each head of garlic, making it easy to use.
Garlic, like all of the allium family are essentially bulbs. Like a tulip bulb, garlic is planted in the fall at a depth of about 3 to 4 inches and 5 to 6 inches apart. I then cover the garlic beds with a thick layer of straw to protect them from the winter cold as well as the thaws.
It’s always encouraging to see the first green shoots of garlic poke forth before most anything else in Springtime.
When I’m convinced that the weather has warmed and settled, off comes the straw and the garlic shoots quickly thicken. We enjoy using the young, or green, garlic in stir frys and other preparations.
About mid-June it’s time to cut off the curly scapes, which resemble goosenecks. These would develop into a blossom if not cut. The idea is to send the energy of the growing plant downwards to increase the size of the bulb, not divert it upward into flowers and seeds.
About the third week of July, it’s time to pull the garlic out and let it dry in an airy place, eventually clipping the stem off for storage. The fun of growing your own garlic and superior flavor far exceed anything grown commercially
Garlic may be used fresh, cooked, stored, pickled or fermented. Black garlic, which is fermented, and essential in Korean cuisine, is gaining in popularity for reasons of unique umami flavors and health benefits.
Try something unique and satisfying and try planting some garlic yourself this Autumn! You’ll be glad you did.
Looking for a seasonal dinner with “wow factor” that can be prepared in 3 minutes?
If you have a food processor and garlic growing in your garden, you’re in luck! Try garlic scape pesto. Pesto can be made with almost any green herb but when it’s mid-summer in Maine, we have gorgeous scapes for two minutes. So let’s use them on pasta, baguette, grains…or whatever!
INGREDIENTS:
SCAPE TIPS (the tender part) 1 CUP (you may blanch these to tame the flavor, if preferred)
1/2 CUP TOASTED PINE NUTS OR WALNUTS
1/2 CUP XVOO
1/4 CUP PARMESAN
1/2 CUP BASIL TOPS, OPTIONAL
A FEW DROPS OF LEMON JUICE AT TIME OF SERVICE, TO BRIGHTEN THE FLAVORS.
METHOD:
THIS IS A SIMPLE RECIPE, BUT THE ORDER OF INGREDIENTS INTO THE FOOD PROCESSOR MATTERS.
FIRST PULSE THE SCAPES IN PROCESSOR FOR 30 SECONDS.ADD BASIL HERE, IF DESIRED
ADD NUTS AND PROCESS FOR ANOTHER 30 SECONDS. SCRAPE DOWN THE BOWL
ADD THE OLIVE OIL AND PROCESS FOR 1 MINUTE ON HIGH
ADD THE CHEESE AND PULSE UNTIL ALL IS COMBINED
ADD SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE.
SERVE IMMEDIATELY TOPPING WITH A SQUEEZE OF LEMON.
It’s a Maine tradition that marks the start of the summer season with more. emphasis than the Memorial Day parade.
Our gardens deliver the first peas and new potatoes in early July.. Wonderful Atlantic salmon its available in the market.
Putting it all together in one spectacular meal is a family celebration, with junior shelling the peas, Granddad digging the potatoes and Mother finding the nicest fresh filet of salmon.
We like to fire up the grill, season the fish and place on a new cedar shingle. It all goes on the grill, the cedar burning around the edges and giving the fish a bit of smoke. Yep. Its really works! Quite delicious too.
Add some Romesco sauce …you can fire grill the red peppers for this while the grill is on…. (recipe in Seasonal Recipes) and a handful of fresh chopped dill from the garden.
You’ve got a” summer in Maine “ treat that screams “CELEBRATE SUMMER!”And we will, if it ever stops raining!
Romesco Sauce, while pairing beautifully with salmon, is a culinary gift from Spain and brings that excitement to our fresh fish dish.
It only requires a handful of ingredients and is easy to prepare using a food processor:
Fire grilled roasted red peppers, cleaned of their charred skin and seeds
Smoked paprika
Salt and peper
A little anchovy paste, optional
Fresh chopped garlic to taste, start with a tsp.
A bit of orange zest
Crushed Natural almonds, start with one cup
1/4 cup of good olive oil
Some dried or stale bread, less is more but it works to tighten up the sauce.
Romesco doesn’t even need a recipe. To make a quart I begin with perhaps 6-8 roasted whole red peppers, cleaned. And a cup of almonds. Pulse these in a food processor with the seasonings, nuts and bread to desired texture. I prefer mine slightly chunky but a silky texture can be achieved with more and longer processing time.
Correct seasonings
I top mine with more oil and it keeps for a week under refrigeration. It’s a terrific go-to for most any grilled protein. Enjoy!
MAKES A QUART. Keeps for a week covered under refrigeration. Takes 20 minutes. Use a good sized double boiler and have a sturdy whisk on hand As well as a cool bowl to pour the sauce into when finished.
In French Cuisine, Hollandaise is a classic Mother sauce, meaning one of the basics that others spring from, such as Béarnaise. It is an emulsified sauce. Basically the same idea, but using a different acidifier in this case lemon juice rather than a reduction of wine, vinegar, herbs and pepper which acidify and typify a Béarnaise.
This is a stove top recipe taught to me “on the fly” during a sauce crisis at dinner service one evening by the very able James Hatch who was assisting me on the line back in the Pine Cone days, circa 1989. Visit James now at his dining spot, the fabulous Home Kitchen Cafe in Rockland ME….he still uses this recipe taught to him, no doubt, by his Dad at the Cupboard Cafe in New Harbor, Maine.
For our Hollandaise, use the best eggs and butter you can find. I like free range eggs and good unsalted butter ( gives a rich color to the sauce) which I melt, then clarify.
To clarify just means pouring off the milk that collects in the bottom of the melted butter… or simply don’t use it. I save mine for a chowder.
INGREDIENTS
A DOZEN ORGANIC EGGS, SEPARATED ( save the whites for an low fat omelette)
1 POUND OF UNSALTED BUTTER,MELTED. I LIKE GRASS FED
1 CUP FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON JUICE at the ready
SALT AND FRESH GROUND WHITE PEPPER TO TASTE
A DASH OF TOBASCO SAUCE OR CAYENNE PEPPER
On your stovetop, warm the water at a medium heat under the double boiler as you pour your yolks into the top half.
From THIS POINT ON NEVER STOP WHISKING. Adjusting the heat lower as needed, slowly drip in the melted clarified butter until the eggs emulsify and the sauce thickens to your desired consistency . It will thicken further as it cools. If too thick for your purposes, add back in some of the milk from the clarifying process to thin it. Correct the taste with salt, pepper and tabasco, continue stirring until some of the heat is out of the sauce.
Pour your Hollandaise into an airtight container or bowl, cover with Saran wrap. Best if used immediately, but the sauce will hold for a few days in the refrigerator and can be brought back to room temp carefully. Good at Brunch, on crab cakes or poached salmon!
It’s early June and I’ve been eating my fresh asparagus for about two weeks. My asparagus bed is now 12 years old. I never tire of it, steamed, blanched or roasted…pureed into a soup or on an Eggs Benedict.
Asparagus as we know it is the sprout of the Asparagus Officinalis, sometimes affectionately called sparrow grass. As with all culinary sprouts (think Belgian endive), this plant is all about the root system. The larger the root system the more it sprouts and produces the stalk we know and love. If left untended, the stalk grows and ferns out, creating a beautiful hedge and small red berries or seeds. Leaving it to grow is a surefire way to increase production for next season.
Growing asparagus requires a lot of preparation. It’s “like digging a grave” as an old and wise woman once said.” You dig a trench, add a lot of organic material, lay in your root bundles, spreading them out for best effect and then wait for a few years. Water, water, water. Seriously. At first all you’ll get is slender shoots, which you leave alone, but as the root systems develop that’s when the magic happens. It’s a long wait, then a short season. It’s no wonder that asparagus is known as a luxury!
Considered a delicacy in many cultures, Spargle, or a type of blanched, white asparagus is widely celebrated throughout Europe… especially in Germany. Festivals are held just to exalt the seasonal vegetable, which is often served topped with Hollandaise, with buttered boiled potatoes and cured ham. And beer… always good beer or a dry white wine such as a German Kabinett.
It is cooked and eaten in much the same way and it’s flavor is similar to the green, if not slightly more bitter. Sometimes with the fatter spears, the bottom part of the stalk is peeled and naturally there is a special tool for this. IF one cannot be found a common vegetable peeler will do.
Now, asparagus is not just a beautiful vegetable and plant. It is a powerhouse of nutrition offering vitamins A, C , Folic acid and plenty of fiber. Honestly, it always smells like it’s flushing something evil out of me, so I hope it is!
Try fresh poached asparagus in season on a smoked salmon Eggs Benedict topped with a tarragon flecked homemade Hollandaise. You can find this recipe under my seasonal recipe blog.
It’s a great reason to get up on a Sunday morning!
This recipe is courtesy of my friend in fine cookery, Charlotte Davenhill. She makes the most delectable ramp butter….and you can see by her recipe that it isn’t hard. The trick is to chop more than you need in a food processor with sea salt and EVOO, then store it under refrigeration until more is needed:
Use only the strappy, green leaves.
Wash and dry them throughly.
Process with salt to taste and EVOO in a food processor.
To make ramp butter, just add cubed, fresh butter to the chopped greens mixture and blend until there are no more butter lumps . More greens equal a stronger garlic flavor. Keeps well and tastes heavenly.
These beautiful spring days have us out and about in the back woods of Maine enjoying the wonders of nature. And perhaps foraging.
If you’re lucky and know a little bit about foraging, you may be able to identify a low growing, broad leafed plant, the ramp, a member of the onion or allium family. Sporting just a few broad green leaves and a white or reddish stem, the taste is reminiscent of garlic and onion.. but somehow more sublime. Their taste raw is far more pungent than when cooked. The ramp stands in nicely in quiche , pesto or a compound butter. Sometimes you can spot them in a Farmer’s market. Or a Trader Joes, which its where I got the ramps I used to start my own bed of them! They cannot be farmed, so they are a true wild food .
Ramps are not as prolific in the wild in Maine as they once were. In fact, they’re now protected. So it’s important to note that when foraging anything, never take it all. If we want all the gifts of the woods in the beautiful State of Maine to continue to thrive, we must never be greedy. Conservation begins with every foraging event. Take care to not harvest the root of the plant, but cut some of the leaves to maintain the plants viability.
Here’s the good news… ramps are easy to grow IF you happen to have a spot with fertile, moist soil near a stream lined, with hardwood trees. My wild ramps are coming along splendidly after two years of uninterrupted growth, as you can see in the picture. Once they flower, the leaves disappear and they’re harder for a novice to ID.
Because I am obsessed with the ramp’s flavor, and yet am loathe to use mine fully, I take just one leaf per plant to make my friend Charlotte Davenhill’s famous salted ramp butter. The recipe may be seen on our Seasonal Recipes section of this website.
A crusty loaf of bread and fresh ramp butter … Absolutely decadent.
Known to gourmands and seed savers alike, these varieties are lacking a gene favored since commercialization back in the forties that offers uniformity. Which is helpful in shipping. But heirlooms are far superior in old fashioned flavor and are just so much fun to work with! And to eat.
It’s early June and I’ve been eating my fresh asparagus for about two weeks. My asparagus bed is now 12 years old. I never tire of it, steamed, blanched or roasted…pureed into a soup or on an Eggs Benedict.
Growing asparagus requires a lot of preparation. It’s “like digging a grave” as an old and wise woman once said.” You dig a trench, add a lot of organic material, lay in your root bundles, spreading them out for best effect and then wait for a few years. Water, water, water. Seriously. At first all you’ll get is slender shoots, which you leave alone, but as the root systems develop that’s when the magic happens. It’s a long wait, then a short season. It’s no wonder that asparagus is known as a luxury!
It is cooked and eaten in much the same way and it’s flavor is similar to the green, if not slightly more bitter. Sometimes with the fatter spears, the bottom part of the stalk is peeled and naturally there is a special tool for this. IF one cannot be found a common vegetable peeler will do.
