Blueberry Lavender Limeade

When the sun comes out from behind the grey cloud cover that often blankets Western Washington and Oregon, one of my first thoughts (after the obvious Thank You God) is “Let’s have a picnic.” Is there anything more deeply nurturing than gathering a friend or two and heading into glorious nature with a treasure trove of great things to eat and drink? Not in my book.

So you can imagine my delight when I recently discovered that The Nature Conservancy is sponsoring a Picnic for the Planet. That’s right, a picnic for the ENTIRE planet. It’s this Sunday, April 22^nd, in honor of Earth Day.

The Nature Conservancy is the world’s largest conservation organization, working in more than 30 countries and all 50 states. They work closely with the people who provide our food–farmers, ranchers and fisherman–and with our support, they can continue to protect the most vital habitats on Earth.

In Portland, Oregon, the picnic will be at beautiful Mt. Tabor Park, with its gorgeous views, open space, and hiking trails. The covered picnic shelter is reserved for the event, so the picnic is on rain or shine. (To scout the location in your area, check out this picnic map.)

So now that I have a picnic to go to and not much time to create a bevy of new dishes, I decided to rely on a few of my favorites from past posts. In addition to Blueberry Lavender Limeade, I’m bringing:

LunaCafe’s Spicy Fried Chicken

Old-Fashioned Creamy Macaroni Salad

Chewy Gooey Congo Bars (Blondies on Steroids)

Hope to see you there!

Resources

• The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/
• Picnic for the Planet: http://www.nature.org/earthday/
• Picnic for the Planet 2012: http://www.crowdrise.com/tncpicnic/
• Attend a Picnic: http://www.nature.org/earthday/attend/index.htm

I have vivid memories associated with cherries–replete with colors, aromas, flavors, textures, sounds, ambient temperatures, and moods. Each one seems to mark some important formative point in my life, some right of passage. It’s a little eerie.

For instance, I can clearly see my 10-year-old self, gangly bare legs scratched and grass stained, high in a craggy cherry tree in the neighbor’s back field, wedged between a couple of  large branches, eating ginormous quantities of sweet, lush bing cherries. The sun is high and hot, there is an ornery horse grazing beneath the tree, and I am lazily spitting cherry pits onto his head.

Several years later, I am up the street at another neighbors, babysitting three scruffy kids, all under 7 years old. It’s almost lunchtime and their smudged faces look expectantly at me.  A sinking feeling sets in as I scour the cupboards and frig for options and realize that there is virtually no food in this house.

But there is a cherry tree in the yard loaded with ripe pie cherries. With the kids nestled together on the ground looking up at me dubiously, I manage to climb the tree with a paper bag in one hand and pick enough cherries to make a pie. Then back to the kitchen to make the pie crust and filling with what flour, sugar, and shortening can be scrounged. While the pie bakes, I score a forgotten bag of elbow macaroni at the back of an otherwise empty cupboard, a  lonely can of peas, and a partial jar of mayonnaise. With these I show the kids how to make a macaroni salad, hamming it up in exchange for giggles, pretending there is nothing odd about this makeshift meal. We eat the marginal salad first, then the delicious warm pie.

In another vignette, I step down a couple of rickety stairs and push open a creaky door into the root cellar of grandma’s old farmhouse. There is the smell of damp, dank air. I pull a cord hanging from the low ceiling, which casts a pale light into the earth-walled room. At the far end, lined up neatly on rough shelves, are hundreds of jars of newly canned fruit. They glisten like exotic jewels in the half light: heavenly peaches, plums, crab apples, pears, applesauce, pie cherries, and sweet cherries. I reach for a jar of crimson-red bing cherries bathed in syrup and feel the cool jar in my hand.

Now that I no longer have cherry trees to climb or grandma’s home-canned cherries to pilfer, I have to buy my cherries at the market just like everyone else. Fresh pie cherries can be especially hard to come by. When I spotted a display of both balaton and montmorency pie cherries the first week of August at the Seattle University District Farmers Market, I was elated–even at $9.00 a pound–and even though it takes two pounds of cherries to make a pie or a crisp. It’s a small price to pay, considering…

Balaton Cherry & Lime Crisp with Toasted Almond Streusel

This combination of tart cherries, lime, lemon, orange, and toasted almond, along with caramelized brown sugar, is irressitible. The best vanilla bean ice cream you can get your hands on is practically required as an accompaniment.

Streusel Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup butter, very cold, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon water, cold

Fruit Filling
6 cups sour pie cherries, pitted (preferably balotin variety; frozen cherries will work in a pinch)
finely grated zest of 1 lime
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon orange blossom water
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup sliced almonds

1. To make the streusel topping, in a mixing bowl, combine the flour brown sugar, sugar, and salt.
2. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until mixture is evenly crumbly.
3. Combine the vinegar and water and sprinkle over the topping. Mix lightly with a fork, using a lifting motion rather than a stirring motion. The idea is to gently distribute the moisture throughout the topping. Reserve for a moment.
4. To make the filling, in a mixing bowl, gently combine the cherries, lime zest, orange zest, lime juice, almond extract, orange blossom water, brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
5. Butter six, 1½ cup gratin or soufflé dishes.
6. Divide the fruit filling between the six dishes.
7. Top each dish with an equal portion of the streusel topping, and then top with an equal portion of the almonds.
8. Arrange the gratin dishes on an edged baking sheet and lay a piece of foil loosely on top.
9. Bake at 350º for ½ hour, remove the foil, and bake an additional 20-30 minutes, until the fruit filling is bubbling and the topping is nicely browned. If necessary, broil for a minute or so or use a kitchen torch to brown the tops.
10. Remove from the oven, let cool somewhat, and then serve while still warm, preferably with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6.

There’s More…

Fresh Primer: Cherries

I Love Hearing from You!

If you have read this far, please leave a comment. Include your blog URL and CommentLuv will automatically link back to your most recent blog post.  I appreciate your support more than I can say. Blessings…Susan

Copyright 2011 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.

You may also like -

Fresh Primer: Strawberries

Northwest Fresh: Portland Farmers Market Spring 2009

Prawn & Strawberry Salad with Fresh Herb Panna Cotta

Fourth of July Independence Day Roundup

….

Note   Be sure to also visit the more recent photo page, University District Farmers Market Summer 2010, with an audio clip of Susan at this fabulous market.

I have been completely remiss in not trekking to Seattle’s University District to check out the farmers market, until recently. I mean, you know, how good can it be?

Instead, when I am in the Seattle area, I head out very early Saturday morning and slip into MY parking spot at the Pike Place Market (PPM) around 7:30. This is a routine that has been going on for DECADES folks, so it is not insignificant that I now alternate between PPM one week and the University District Farmers Market (UDFM) the next. I feel a little guilty, but there’s no turning back.

The University District Farmers Market, founded in 1993, is similar to other seasonal farmers markets across America, in that all of the 50+ sellers are local growers or producers. It differs from the norm, however, in not only the variety and abundance of the edible offerings (no crafts thank god!) but in the esthetically pleasing way the sellers display them. In addition, there is a palpable, buoyant energy to this year-round market that is engaging and welcoming. It’s the farmers market of your dreams!

When you start picking through a gorgeous display of gooseberries and currants, rather than yell at you, the seller flashes a winsome smile and seems genuinely happy to wax rhapsodic about the particularities of this year’s crop. If you aren’t careful, you can end up consuming way too much time just talking to the sellers.

This would not be wise, however, as The Bell goes off at 9 A.M. sharp, and most displays have customers already lined up, goods in hand, ready to pay and run. You Snooze–You Lose should be the motto at this farmers market. No one is here just to look. In fact, I recommend that you show up by at least 8:30, which gives you just enough time to formulate your game plan before the bell goes off.

Many of the growers drive 3-4 hours in the pre-dawn hours to haul their picture-perfect comestibles over the mountain pass from Eastern Washington. Look, for instance, at these difficult-to-find pie cherries I scored the first weekend of August. The Eastern Washington (Chelan) farmer had not one, but two, types of pie cherries to choose from: balotin and montmorency (95% of the sour cherries on the market), both at a whooping $9.00 a pound. I tasted each variety and managed to buy two pounds of the balotins before the hordes completely wiped out the supply. Then I zoomed back to the LunaCafe kitchen and created the best cherry crisp ever: Balotin Cherry and Lime Crisp with Toasted Almond Streusel.

The only difficulty I have at this farmers market is not buying more than we can reasonably prepare and consume in a few days. I mean, don’t you want to grab all of those radishes?

These multi-colored carrots would be dynamite in Julienne of Carrots with Lemon Ginger Vinaigrette. (I’ll share the recipe with you later.)

Have you ever seen more beautiful beets? So small, so vibrant, so tempting. And the weird thing is that I don’t even like beets. But that has to change.

I do, however, LOVE cauliflower–and look, there are four hues here: white, yellow, green, and purple. Also four hues of green beans. That far cream and purple varigated variety is called Dragon’s Tongue.

For the past three weeks, UDFM has had stunning displays of multi-colored chard. I want to live surrounded by these gorgeous crimsons, corals, and soft yellows. Next best thing is to eat them.

Resources