South Royalton Market

Free-range Thanksgiving turkeys from Misty Knoll Farm (Champlain Valley) available by pre-order at the Market through Wednesday, November 11. Price lists and sign-up sheets are near the Produce section.

This year’s price is $4.59/lb. Bird size ranges from 12-14 pounds up to 24-26 pounds. Also available: pre-cut turkey parts, good for small gatherings or if you don’t want to roast an entire bird. We encourage you do to calculate the price when you order so as to avoid sticker shock.

Pick-up is on Tuesday, 11/20. We’ll call you as soon as we have the order sorted. Please pick up that day, if possible, as our cooler space is very limited.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Market’s Got Extra? program accepts donations of fresh local food and distributes them for use in the wider community. This years donations included

Scott Russell, the Market’s home-brew expert, is now in charge of our wine and beer department, too. He’s created a new honey-based wine display featuring

• Honeymaker meads, based in Portland, ME
• Hardwick, VT’s Caledonia Winery honey and fruit wines.

The Honeymaker meads are made with local Maine wildflower honey. Flavors include strawberry, blueberry, dry-hopped, and ‘reserve’, aged in bourbon barrels. Scott is enthusiastic about all of these dry meads. Prices range from around $17 to $28.

Closer to home, Caledonia Winery in Hardwick makes a honey-blueberry and a honey-elderberry wine. Scott describes their flavor as ‘fruity’ — not a big surprise, but worth knowing. Price: around $16.

Homebrewers will be interested to know that Scott has started a Facebook page directly related to the Market’s homebrew department. You can find him and friend him at: SoRo Homebrew.

Thanks to the many farmers and home gardeners who donated fresh summer vegetables to our Got Extra? collections in July and August. Through your generosity, we directed 340 pounds of local garden ‘extras’ to a nearby senior center as well as food pantries.

We have two more collections remaining in this growing season:

• Tuesday, September 25 and
• Tuesday, October 9.

Collection hours: 7:30 a.m. to noon (so that we have time to sort and distribute the food the same day.)

Thank you to everyone who has shared the bounty of their harvest.

August is here! And no — summer’s not almost over. The gardens and orchards are popping with food to eat fresh or preserve for the winter. Check out our selection of books on topics such as making jellies and jams, canning and pickling, and even root-cellaring.

Meanwhile, we’re celebrating with these new arrivals in the Produce Department:

• Shitake mushrooms from First Branch Farm, Chelsea
• World’s-fair famous watermelon from Chap Farm, Royalton
• Heirloom tomatoes from Luna Bleu Farm, South Royalton.

Enjoy it while you can!

This fruit salad is inspired by the local blueberries and Pennsylvania peaches now on display in the Produce Department. It uses just a few seasonal ingredients and can be easily varied. Make it to eat right away, or give it an hour or two in the refrigerator so that the flavors can mingle. Serves four.

1.5 cups each: blueberries and peaches in season
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
4 TBSP olive oil
1 organic lime: juice and zest
0.5 cup basil leaves, measured first, then chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Start with the salad dressing: combine the lime juice, lime zest and olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk. Add the basil; stir gently to coat (but not bruise) it.

Wash fruit. Cut up peaches. Combine peaches and blueberries in a bowl. Add cheese and mix gently.

Pour on the dressing and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper. VOILA!

Variations to consider:
Fruit: use all peaches or all blueberries. Or use substitute cherries for the blueberries in combination with the peaches.
Cheese: substitute chevre for feta
Herbs: consider using lemon balm or apple mint — or possibly cilantro, if you love it –in place of the basil.

Each summer for the past three years, the Market has run a summer produce collection. Farmers and home gardeners donate their extra vegetables; the Market sorts them and distributes them to local meal centers and food pantries. A lot or a little, its all good!

This year, the dates for Got Extra? are the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of July and August:
10 and 24 July
14 and 28 August.

We are grateful to Bigelow, Fern Ridge, and Luna Bleu farms for their donations on July 10.  The Market sent a total of 65 pounds to the food pantries in Sharon and South Royalton as a result.

If you would like to learn more about this program, contact Elizabeth at the Market.

Robert Clark is providing the Market with local conventionally grown strawberries by the quart. We do our best to keep them in stock but they fly out of here! Look for them on your next visit to the Market.

Tunbridge Hill Farm already has small, tender, and delicious zucchini and summer squash–an it’s only June 20th. Amazing!

Peter Chap of Chap Farm is bringing bunches of beets with the greens on top. The whole plant is a powerhouse of nutrition.

Luna Bleu Farm continues to supply us with beautiful rainbow chard — the stems are red, magenta, yellow, and white — great for steaming or braising.

Local vegetables keep rolling in … to be continued!

Bread pudding is simple, versatile, and delicious. The rhubarb adds appealing color and tastes great — even people who generally aren’t rhubarb fans are likely to enjoy this! This recipe is simple enough to involve young people in its preparation. Share the joy of home baking with the next generation. Feel free to improvise.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Ingredients:
8 slices of stale or dry bread — trim off the crusts and cut bread into cubed
2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter, melted
1 1/2 c. sugar (or less)
3 c. rhubarb, diced
1/3 c. raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each: ginger, cloves, ground black pepper
1/2 lemon rind (preferably organic), grated

Method:
1. Grease a 2 quart casserole or 9×13″ pan. Add bread cubes.
2. Combine milk and melted butter. Pour over bread, stir gently, and let set for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients. Pour over the bread/milk/butter mixture and stir gently again.
4. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 50 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to set for 10 minutes before serving.

Good hot, cold, or at room temperature.

We have some great ingredients for summer salads, including — but not limited to:

• fresh greens from local farms, including Chap, Luna Bleu, and Tunbridge Hill
• early local summer vegetables such as fiddleheads, radishes, and beets
• special this month: nuts on sale in the bulk department — almonds (convention and organic) and walnuts (organic)
• special this week: homemade salad dressing from Patty, the Market’s chef — find them in the sandwich cooler.