Letter: Coastside Farmer’s Market field notes

Did you ever wish for a change of scene and scenery, get what you wished for, and then wished you’d just stayed home and enjoyed your own back 40? Well, if you are in the mood for a little change of pace without having to charge your pacemaker, then you might want to consider dropping by your neighborhood Farmer’s Market this week and make a plan to can.  

August Marks a high point in the season, as our local farmer’s fields come into a full lush flush of abundance, the peaches get even more perfect, the fruit hangs heavy on the vine. Most of the time I get all hung up on the instant and total gratification that is found in making pies right about now, but this year. I am regressing even further into my inner Betty, and getting out the canning jars.  

I suspect that my Pal Mr D. "the Voice of Reason" (from a south coast farm which shall go un-named) might be right, and that the effect of escalating fuel prices and the attendant rise in the cost of everything is going to have all of us talking like our grandparents did about the depression in about three more weeks, if we aren’t already doing something quite similar already.  So, in a effort to prepare for evermore expensive food, and to make my pantry look really pretty ( and to deserve to own the 40 or so vintage blue mason jars with ceramic lids I inherited) I am taking advantage of the abundance of tree fruit and cucumbers and putting up a whole mess of goodness right now.  

If you have never made a batch of pickles, preserved a jar of plums or mashed a flat of ripe berries into jam, or made a party out of preparing about 6 kinds of pasta sauce like the Sugo Fest in La Honda, I highly recommend you give it a rip. Especially if you have kids home for the summer, or someone’s kids you can borrow.

Most preserved foods are really easy to prepare but there is a fair bit of hand labor involved, and that’s where borrowing a pack of idol preteens comes in quite handy.  Bring them to the Market, and have them look about for the most ripe, abundant and inexpensive produce you can find.  The splurge a bit on some great fresh herbs, and a pile of lemons, stop by Cunha’s, Ocean Shore Hardware or New Leaf for canning jars and then head home for a day of concoction and connection.

My Mother, an O’Donnell by birth and so not innately preconditioned to making great kosher dill pickles, learned from our neighbor Mrs. Rosen. Every time I see a jar of pickles with a grape leaf and a whole dill sprig framed in the glass, I remember how our basset hound dally used to sneak in the Rabbi Rosen’s garage and steal his socks.  Which has nothing to do with the recipe, just that it was a perfect wonder Mrs. Rosen shared her family recipe with us after years of such abuse.

I will refrain here from offering any recipes – since as you know by now, my offhand toss-it-all-in-a pot-and-see-whay you-end-up-with approach is not wise when it comes to canning.  Drop into Moon News and get a good cookbook – they have a great selection of Market based cookery books to choose from.  You do want to seek out a good recipe to follow- though messing around a bit is encouraged. For example- you can transform basic plum jam by adding a diced fresh ginger root. Preserved Peaches are heavenly when you toss in a bit of vanilla. If you are a real fan of the lush life, you can preserve peaches pears,  plums and pluots simply by cutting them in half, removing the stones, pilling a pretty combo into your jars and smothering in decent but inexpensive brandy or bourbon.  You’ll be very popular when December comes around, I can tell you from experience.
This week – look for insane cherry macaroons from Edna’s Success, our newest addition to both Half Moon Bay and Pacifica. Look for Field of Greens to bring local organic mushrooms and field greens to Pacifica. Look for Dave Crimmen’s fab-o hairdo and guitar stylings in Pacifica, and for Frank Ellis in Half Moon Bay .

Erin Tormey
Coastside Farmers Markets

In Half Moon Bay @ Shoreline Station
Saturdays, 9 am to 1 pm
Opening day: May 3, 2008

In Pacifica @ Rockaway Beach
Wednesdays, 2:30 -6:30pm
Opening Day: May 7, 2008